May 13th - June 4th 2023

Stefanie van den Elzen.
Mixed Media Artist

"Art is a means of retrieving that which exists in secrecy from the dark and respectfully putting it in the light and giving it a voice."

Title: "Crone"
130 x 55 x 10cm. |
Wood, jute, cotton and henna pigment.

Crone depicts the horrors of witch persecutions as a matrix for what is still going on in our world today. With this work, I want to lift those who suffered and those who suffer from 'the Crown on the wrong Heads' from the shadows and give them a respectful place in the light.

My works often depict 'giving the right to exist to those who were and are not seen and unheard in the distant and less distant past, but also today. It concerns both; individuals and larger groups or even entire population groups that have been and are being silenced by large rulers such as the government and the church and by smaller rulers with a high position or high esteem.

The horrors of the witch hunts, in which ecclesiastical and other rulers jointly drew up and used their own rules in order to find justification to get rid of 'people who did not conform to the parties in power', under the heading 'in the interest of society, for the safety of all of us'.

Similar 'witch hunts' still take place in today's society; In a new time, in a new coat but actually with the same theme.