Back to basics. For artist Els Tjong Joe Wai this is her way of maneuvering through life’s rapids. She has done turnarounds a few times before. For example: suddenly breaking up in Greece where she had been living contently for many years, running a gallery, doing great artistically speaking, to return to Suriname because this is where love was calling. “Whenever I change direction, it is very important to me to go all the way back to basics. Back to pencil or ink, and paper. And then it becomes clear that what you had thought of as a transitionary phase, actually produces very nice work.”
After an intense change of direction – the sudden passing of her loved one – she once again reverted back to the basics. After the initial mourning, the feeling of wanting to do ‘something’ again, hesitantly crept upwards. But what? And where to begin? “I also make objects, so I didn’t necessarily have to start painting or drawing. I could also have started sticking or pounding or gluing things. But I thought: keep it simple. Just begin with a pencil. Just start with a line. That was very liberating. And thus entirely new work came into existence.”
