Julia Westerbeke creates abstract terrains that, in her words, “exist somewhere between the organic and curiously alien, the familiar and the foreign.”
Taking inspiration from science fiction and biological forms, she builds intricate surfaces that pay homage to the complexities of organic life as well as its ceaseless regeneration, flux and decay. “Ultimately,” she says, “the work speaks to our warped yet loving relationship with nature.”
In her works from the Afterimage Series, she is drawing with shadows by puncturing sheets of paper with countless pinpricks. In Afterimage I, the image is reminiscent of late 18th century plaster ceiling designs or “medallions” In Afterimage III, the elements appear more floating and moving in space, operating in a cosmos. These are just the sorts of associations Westerbeke is interested in as she refers to in her statement.
“I am interested in abstraction as a vehicle for the imagination and memory. It allows for an indeterminacy of form that activates the viewer, so that even the most pared-down and unfamiliar can still connect by way of subtle visual references. In Gaston Bachelard’s writings on the oneiric and “psychic weight,” he argues that certain imagery, shapes and objects have an immediate intimacy, causing one to delve into personal memory.”