In my work, I call on people to be guided by their senses and intuition. I aim to awaken an awareness of the way we move through this time and in our environment.The earth is one living whole, in which humanity is deeply entwined where everything lives. Every object, plant, mountain, river, and animal is imbued with spirit.
Life, death, place, time, wilderness and order intersect throughout my practice. I present a reality that is ambiguous, distorted, and playful. With a touch of humour and a measure of ruthlessness, the inexplainable has a voice.
The stories I tell are both personal and universal. They take shape in still, figurative sculptures, in ceramics or bronze and in works made of textile or language, expressing abstract narratives. Like how time perishes, the emergence of life and death, and the forked paths we encounter as we move through life.
A dominant presence in my visual language is the beech tree. Not long ago, trees were the tallest forms in the Dutch landscape. As human culture expanded, our relationship with the land changed permanently. I echo a time where people worshipped forests and trees. I stand with one foot in traditional folklore, and the other in the conviction of my own folklore. From that I create with a foresightful eye and unearth new works that feel as though they’ve always existed.
Currently, I am researching liminality and “thin places” — threshold spaces between worlds, realities, and time periods.
Renée Bus (1992) lives and works in Tilburg, and regularly exchanges the dutch lowlands for the highlands of Scotland.