Shown at Brookfield Place office complex in
Toronto, Canada, Not The Actual Site (2018) is
a site-specific installation in which ‘photos of
the floor become the wall and vice versa’.
WHILE STUDYING PHOTOGRAPHY in
The Hague, Marleen Sleeuwits started making
studies of impersonal environments when
they were empty and unoccupied. From
photographing found settings in airports,
hotels and offices, she graduated to shaping
temporary interiors, and sometimes objects,
that embody her preoccupations. Large-scale
and intensely detailed, her photographs –
devoid of people, furniture, and even doors- draw the viewer into places that are simul-
taneously alien and familiar. In her work,
she tests the boundaries between 2D and 3D
realities. By using her photographs to make
installations, she adds to their immersive
power, thus completing the circle.
So you’re a photographer who spends
more time creating spaces than shooting
pictures... MARLEEN SLEEUWITS: I might
spend a month, or maybe three, working on a
space. Then I’ll take a single picture with my
8×10 camera. Lots of people tell me that for a
photographer, I don’t take many photos. But
my work is very photographic in character.You mean because your interiors are partly
composed of photographs? That’s part of it.
As you can see in my site-specific installa-
tion in Toronto, where photos of the floor
become the wall and vice versa, you always
have to ask yourself: what’s the photo, andwhat’s the installation? It’s completely
blurred. I like that.You’re giving us a puzzle to solve – but why?
It’s my personal translation of how I experi-
ence these spaces. I’m asking what it is
that surrounds us. How do we relate to our
environment? I play with those ideas. It’s my
own interpretation of space.How do you convey your interpretation to
the audience? I use an 8×10 camera, which
gives enormous detail. You can see specks of
dust, flecks of paint. It’s very tactile. I present
each photo on a monumental scale, as if it
were a window. Lately, I’ve made the photos
freestanding – like a wall, they make a kind
of 3D space. The viewer enters into it.You started with a fascination for found
spaces that are pretty much non-spaces.
I’d rather call them generic spaces: airports,
hotels, offices – it doesn’t matter. I started
off photographing spaces with a specific
theme, places like Batavia Stad, a shopping
mall in the Netherlands. I’ve always liked
places that don’t seem real, where you feel
like you’re in a fictional environment. I like
exploring how you get a grip on such an
environment and connect with it. The last
two years I’ve mainly worked with empty
office spaces, as they’re cheap to rent. »‘I want to
remind
people that
there’s
more to
generic
spaces
than meets
the eye’
ONE ARTIST, ONE MATERIAL 73