Henrike Gootjes
Regeneration Strategist, Artist - Educator
Drenkelingenhuisje
A small house on the isle of Vlieland helps the survivor recover. The door is always open and blanket and some gin help the weary soul.
Drenkelingenhuisje,Embroided aquarel, 40x40 cm, 2015 (sold)
Pier
A pier made by uneven wooden pillars and washed ashore trenches. During high water a ferry takes you to the nearby Isle of Texel.
A road to the horizon. Full of promises and possibilities.
Pier ,Embroided aquarel, 40x40 cm, 2015 (sold)
Beacon
An old photo shows a woman lighting a beacon on the Isle of Vlieland.
In a storm a man swam from his sinking ship ashore and walked trough the night towards across sandy landscape hoping to find civilation. He died from exhaustion and cold a few hundreds meters from the first houses. Mr. Cupido build a lamp-post so the next unlucky victim of disaster could navigate towards help.
'It reminded me of many stories of dying man,
soldiers asking for their mamma's, men seeing angels or a woman-figure coming to rescue them
in their hallucination. My own mother being a
beaken of hope and future for my father
when he was ill.'
Vrouw steekt een baken aan,Embroided aquarel, 30x40 cm, 2015 (sold)
Alors on danse
The immense relief to reach the shore when shipwrecked is captured in this work. The lighthouse, a beacon in the night, is proclaming a festive invitation to dance.
Alors on dance,felt and crochet. 80x80 cm, 2015
Sailors tattoo
'A captain I met on the isle had an old tattoo. A ship, a dutch flag, an the name of the Ilse where he was born and lived. As the needles tattoo-ed his arm a long time ago, I use the needle to tell his story in cross-stich. Delligently and slow. The captain told me his first tattoo was set in his first overseas harbour, as a 14 years old decksweeper. By returning to the Isle his mother cried seeing the tattoo. She knew he the sea had stolen her son and he would be a man of the seas forever.
He believed that with the tattoo he could always be identified and his golden earing could be used to pay for the expence of a christian burial.'
Vlieland tattoo,Embroided aquarel, 40x40 cm, 2015
Alles doet ertoe
'Alles doet ertoe' is dutch for 'everything matters'
The song by Herman van Veen was a great inspiration. Washing ashore and surviving makes you aware that everthing, the details, the mondaine, the insignificant, all and everything has his place and is important.
Alles doet ertoe, textiles, embroidery,
110x50 cm, 2015
Seamansgrave
The quest to find stories of survivors brings you to a lot of stories of people who did not survive. The Oceans and seas have are the grave of many man. In the dunes of Stortemelk on the isle of Vlieland, a mass grave was discoverd by a boy playing in the sand. After long and diligent research the bones of the 16 man where dated the second half of the 18th century. One messing button was incredebly helpfull to date the unknown sailorscrew.
This work honors all who have lost their lives at sea. Golden beads echo the button found in the grave and resembles the souls as well as stars in the sky.
The sailors crew was buried in the sandy dunes who have the same shape as the waves in the ocean.
Zeemansgraf, Textiles, beads and stiching, 40x 55 cm, 2015
Bienvenue saint Mathieu de Treviers,
aquarel - drawing, 17 x 23 cm. 2018
'Mama Maria', Acrylic and metal wire, 30 x 30 cm, 2017
'zwaluw' acrylic and wire, 30 x 30 cm, 2017 (sold)
