The Form and the Figure

Born in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands, in 1958, Edith Cammenga has spent her career exploring the physical and symbolic boundaries of form. Her training at the Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam provided the foundation for a practice that refuses to stay within a single lane. While many artists choose one medium, Cammenga moves between sculpture, installation, painting, and drawing, often blending these disciplines to create something entirely different. After her studies, she established her practice in Gouda, a city that has become a central part of her professional life.

Her work often feels like a conversation between the human body and the objects we leave behind. She has a way of looking at the world that feels both intimate and strangely detached, as if she is examining the remnants of a life or the quiet movements of nature. This approach is visible in her varied output, which ranges from large-scale installations to delicate works on paper.

A Diverse Material Language

Cammenga’s practice is defined by its ability to transform ordinary materials into something heavy with meaning. She does not shy away from the complexities of texture or the weight of history. Her work has found a home in several significant institutions, including:

• Museum Gouda
• Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
• Museum voor Religieuze Kunst in Uden
• Museum voor het boek in Den Haag

In her larger installations, she uses materials that demand attention. For the Maritiem Museum Rotterdam, she created Geodesie van het verlangen, an eight-meter ship named the Lady Ann. This piece incorporated bronze figurines alongside hairpins and objects with wart-like textures, creating a tactile, almost unsettling presence. Similarly, her design for a canopy at the IJsselhof cemetery in Gouda used a bow-shaped form and symbols reminiscent of medieval religious art, bridging the gap between the physical structure and the spiritual atmosphere of the space.

Themes of Nature and Presence

The themes in Cammenga's work often touch upon the concept of what remains. She has explored ideas of post-humanity and post-nature, looking at how the environment and the human presence intersect. Her recent interests include sea incantations and the complexities of climate and bio-piracy. These are not just abstract ideas to her; they are subjects that manifest in her use of mixed techniques and social sculptures.

Even in her smaller, more personal works, there is a sense of narrative. In her 1992 piece Congelatio-Stolling, she integrated text into the painting, specifically referencing Judith and Holofernes. Whether she is working with the expressionist energy of a large figure-based painting or the quiet contemplation of a piece like Sheep Contemplating a Cloud, her work remains focused on the tension between the seen and the felt.