Greet Weitenberg has the ability to capture her world in profound moments of temporal being. Her feel for color and her ability for capturing the life around her are striking in her works. This is to be seen in her project Abandoned in which she questions the sell out of spaces around us, and captures the emptiness, but also the ‘life before’ of houses, storehouses, landscapes through a combination of photography and collage. Viewscape shows a collection of new invented landscapes in collages, photos and site specific installations which have been seen in several galleries in The Netherlands and Germany. In her serie of drawings of The extended family you can feel her struggle with the growing individuality in the world. By facing this issue she created new familymembers in fragil drawings. The power of her work arises in the fearless approach of issues where she shows intimicy, fragility where you might not expect it.
Currently she is working on a new serie called “Welcome To My Happy World!” At the start of the umpteenth Covid wave, Weitenberg felt sad about the polarization in society. In the beginning of Covid, most people were all sweet, caring and understanding for each other: shopping for people who no longer dared to go to the supermarket because of the fear of contamination, clapping for people working in healthcare, the ’together this will work’ feeling. Now we sometimes face each other as enemies: wappies versus non-wappies; exaggerators versus so-called realists. With suppression within families and circles of friends as a result.
She explored what she, but also many others, need in this newly emerged reality: happyness, joy, liveliness, organic shapes, softness. In her research she rediscovered yarn; she has used this material more often in her work, so for her it came naturally. But usually she combines it with photos, drawing etc. Now she wanted to give the softness of yarn, wool, the ultimate leading role.
During my research she came across wall hangings, textile works: soft, organic shapes in cheerful colours, she was inspired by nature, her garden, flowers, the underground, invisible and aboveground, visible, etcetera.
Her ongoing project ‘Welcome To My Happy World’ consists of a series of smaller works, ‘My Little Happy Friends’, as well as a number of larger works including a two-part work, ‘My Happy Brainwave’, ‘The Dance”, ‘The Island of Hope’ , etc. As well as several drawings, the sparkling on the water and her series of drawings of the life of micro organismes under the water of her “Happy World”.
This new world is in continuous development whereby the question always arises whether she will finally have found her ultimate world…