In Amanda Betz’s exhibition at Format Artspace the artist is exploring the deeper meaning of the forrest and flora’s meaning to understand why they affect us on a sensual level and therefore infiltrate our every day – from the food we eat to the ornamentation in both architecture and clothing.
The exhibition is based on her childhood forrest Fanefjord Skov at Møn, where she has explored her own realationship to the forrest and the lives of plants. Why she is drawn towards it and why it brings her calmness. Why it makes her scared.
To Amanda Betz the idea of the meeting with the forrest was romantic, but it became a paradox. Hence the meeting became both like a clumsy child that occupied a space and an exploring detective. Anxious of the darkness, the pinetree’s hooks and of wandering alone in the forrest.
After having to acknowledge herself as a city person, Betz decided to do a forrest hiking true to nordic shamanism. In her research Betz chose to perform an outside sitting in the forrest after the nordic shamanistic tradition. With a series of paper refliefs and graphic prints Betz’s works opens up small poetic windows, which attempts to grip Betz’s experience of the nature through her research for the project. With an interest in the nature’s meaning to humans, both emotional and practical, Betz has approached the forrest and its species through her works.
Amanda Betz is an architect and works in the field between art, design and architecture. Paper has always been her favourite media and with that she experiments between two and three dimensions.
Amanda Betz has also gained both national and international recognition for her ability to capture great complecity within a simple object. Previously she has exhibited at Museum for Paper Art, Bakkehuset, Kunstsalonen and most current at Officinet.
Source: Format Artspace