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Marcelle van Bemmel is a Dutch artist who creates sculptures, photography, installation art, light art, and performance art.

Early life
Bemmel spent her earlier time in Nederlands Indië since she was born until the shift of the Dutch ruling in 1949. Her family started a new life in the Netherlands where she also stayed frequently with her grandparents in Overijssel. Finally in 1958, her family moved to Rotterdam in which her father found a lifelong dedication in the preservation of nature and protection of endangered species and later became director of the Rotterdam zoo.

Bemmel explained her childhood activity in the 1950s consisted of many museum visits, specifically natural historical museums. She had been fascinated by the diorama and this is where she drew inspiration for her black light boxes with landscapes cut out of paper that she made for her final exam at the academy in 1972. The project was a stepping stone for her continued artistic journey. She found inspiration also from her grandparents' collection in Twente where she could scroll through folders with a large stock of graphics varying from Japanese woodprints, etchings and lithographs from 1900s. This collection contained works from George Breitner, Jozef Israels, James Ensor, Charles-François Daubigny, James Whistler, Odilon Redon, Honoré Daumier, Francisco Goya, and many unknown artists.

During her time in the academy, as she did not find sculptural studies suitable, she was sent to the section TSO (Drawing, Painting, Design) though not particularly being a fan of painting. She was able to use facilities of other departments which she experimented at the section 3D with epoxy resin, printing b&w photographs in the dark room of the section Graphic Design and even welded aluminium with the amanuensis in the academy's cellar.

Career
Marcelle van Bemmel started studying in Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, Rotterdam in 1966 and graduated in 1971. She has mostly been active and creating works in Rotterdam since 1982 until 1997.

Bemmel, as a visual artist, is especially interested with undefinable form of materials such as natural elements and phenomenon namely, water, reflection, light and shadow play and most importantly, time. This way her works are not completed by its own but rather open themselves towards interpretation and relation between the spectator and environment. Bemmel uses visuality as a metaphor of what she often expresses as the 'invisible world of experience.'

Between the year 1982 and 1990, Bemmel channels visuality through performance art such as her masterwork, COELACANTH (1982), ROVING ROCKS (1983), PERSEUS' SHIELD (1986), and many more. 1990 until 1995 was the period where Bemmel explored a new theme related to confusion with works like THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (1990). After 1995, Bemmel continues to explore different materials, and even so far as to venture to landscape art. From records she has now completed a number of exhibitions and assignments for museums and other art institutions.(10) Fast forward to 2016, she has mainly dealt with the medium, photography.

Vision of the artist
Artists face a paradoxical task, namely, expressing these invisible ideas and emotions with tangible or visual means. Marcelle van Bemmel is inspired by this contradiction to prefer materials that do not have a determinative form. These materials can variate from water to reflections, light and shadow to also time. This choice in materials affects that her works are rarely an object in their own right, but they often have a relationship with the public or their environment.

Overview of artworks
Non-exclusive overview of Marcelle van Bemmel's work. Van Bemmel created artworks in various art disciplines, here are shown a few disciplines with the works of art.

Publications

 * 1) Essay "kunstwerken als memorystones," essay on the occasion of the Hans Baaij Essay Prize 2006. Published under the name Pauline Valentin, pseudonym for Marcelle van Bemmel.

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