Linda Beumer

Visual artist Linda Beumer (1986) doesn’t like to stick to one discipline, and instead relates graphics, photography and collage into neat looking designs. Her work explores the tension between the spatiality of objects and the flat surface of the image by twisting and layering until the origin of the image becomes untraceable. Beumer is part of the exhibition we’re hosting in collaboration with Current Obsession in our project space this December. It will feature a whole lot of friendly faces and familiar names.

Who are you?

I’m Linda Beumer, 28 years old and working and living in Amsterdam. I just started my master’s at the Sandberg, called  ‘Cure Master’, which is all about healing and health, so those topics will be my interests for the coming two years – which is very exciting. Besides that, I have a big fascination for magazines and déjà vu, and I would really like to get better at keeping my plants alive!

How are the disciplines you work in, graphic design, collage and photography, related?

All three of them are very much related to me as I started working with them around the same time – especially collage and graphic design – and then I started using photography as a means of documentation. What I find fascinating about photography is that it gives me a tool to freeze a moment within the process, and that the process can be endless. Whereas with graphic design it’s more of a linear process, for me at least.   

Your images are built up out of a lot of layers yet still appear very ‘flat’. How do you usually go about building up an image?

Yes, you’re right when it comes to all the layers. I’m interested in how something that is flat can become more spatial and then become flat again. I usually start with a textual research and then build up a large image/resource collection. When it comes to building up an image, the process in front of the camera is more important than behind the camera. Through taking pictures of pictures or organising and scaling of objects multiple times I try to provoke disorientation, at least in the way the image is perceived.

You work as a designer for Current Obsessions and you’re also part of the upcoming exhibition in our project space. Can you explain what you’ll be showing?

The images here are part of bigger series of a visual research I just started. I’m looking into fake healing minerals I get from Ebay, discussing the fake within the real and the fake within the fake and the real in its origin. It’s almost impossible to judge them by appearance; it’s all about the energy, you have to come and experience…

Anything coming up next?

Yes! As I mentioned before i’m back in school and we will have our first exhibition in December finishing a 3 month residency in a mental institute. Of course the Current Obsession Christmas party is coming up and we are busy preparing a publication for the Munich Jewelry Week in March 2015.