Aam Solleveld

aam solleveld

Catherine Somzé
Notes on Aam Solleveld’s Tape Drawings

April 2009

Out of the different concerns that singularize the work of Dutch artist Aam Solleveld, the correlation between
space, experience and memory stands as primary. After experimenting with three-dimensional media, Solleveld
soon became interested in the expressive potential of drawing. Fascinated by the life of spaces, Solleveld
went from drawing places in her Address Drawings (1999-2002) and Media Spaces (2003) to turning spaces into
life-size drawings with her Tape Drawings.

During her years as an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie (Amsterdam, 2001-2003), Solleveld started
developing a technique that would allow her practice of drawing to expand in space and cover life-size
dimensions. Unique in their genre, Solleveld’s Tape Drawings re-territorialize drawing from paper to
walls – a step towards a shift of perspective from depicting reality to turning reality into a world of
depictions. By sketching structures on the walls of the exhibition space with the help of tape, Solleveld
draws viewers into her universe rather than merely presenting them with images of it. Stemming from a tradition
that goes back to the early twentieth century, the clearest antecedents of Solleveld’s Tape Drawings however
lay in the conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s. Also, the sober and abstracted look of Solleveld’s Tape
Drawings (despite their figurative nature) reminds one of the geometrical patterns of De Stijl. Solleveld’s use
of tape however pushes an understanding of her own installations beyond this artistic legacy. The material
specificity of her Tape Drawings allows a different form of aesthetic engagement with the works.

Over the past few years, Solleveld has been presenting tape spaces in the manner of Chinese commercial streets,
kitchen and home-like interiors. Interrupting the grid of straight lines, arching and hanging pieces of tape
simulate electricity cables and other devices observed in reality. The tape drawings seem to hover along the
walls as if holding no physical relation to them. The use of tape and the overall unfinished look of the
installations counterbalance Solleveld Tape Drawings’ first dramatic impression. They imbue the works with
grateful playfulness. It is as if one could go up to them and pull them away –as one would with a theatre-curtain.
They speak about the constructed nature of both the installation and the object of its own depiction: reality.

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