Mette Sterre
Come, take a walk in Mette Sterre’s brain-space.
As a child, Mette Sterre made little theatre shows, devising the stories and drawing the settings and characters. She is and always has been a maker of worlds. Sterre’s work is an invitation to wander through the realms of her imagination, meeting myth and multi-hyphenate organism alike, who pose some of life’s great unanswerable questions: “What is consciousness? What else could we be beyond human?” She works with intuitive improvisation, a carefully practiced skill which combines rigorous material research and contextual understanding. Her materials are accessible, poured with love and commitment. The resulting works are visually enthralling but more so for the energy that transmutes them. Sterre invites you to consider her works with your gut, not only your eyes, unlocking a vast world where patriarchal power structures melt along with fixed conceptions of materiality, perception, and embodiment.
The grotesque body is always in a state of flux, building itself and its others, the pinnacle of transformation.
Sterre’s works are populated by characters who embody the shadow worlds of humanity. The print work ssssshhhht, depicts the artist’s mother, imbibed in a body mask depicting the snake from the story of Genesis, Eve’s tempter. The mask itself is constructed of 1000 fragments of hand cut leather, pieced together by hand, forming the transformative skin, worn and born together. Here, the concept of inherited guilt is cast out, along with the shame and oppression of the female body associated with this creation story. Sterre’s woman is not the embodiment of Adam’s rib but a whole universe, a grotesque body of senses and states, always becoming, never finished. In Let us Please Populate, hand cut and melted leaves have been reassembled to form a mask for the whole body. The work derives from a prophecy made by Nostradamus, in which plants can no longer photosynthesise because the sun is in shadow, caused by clouds of dust and fire from the earth’s burning. Without photosynthesis life will expire, unless, as Sterre’s figure allows, humans and plants merge, feeding off each other in an organic/inorganic osmosis. Sterre’s works breakdown logic to make way for new ideas, allowing the imagination to proliferate. Her current research explores the relation between the physical body and digital realm, centred around robotics and animism. Are we all cyborgs? Do plants feel? With the meteoric rise in digital technologies, the boundaries between our bodies, the digital world and nature are increasingly blurred. Sterre’s works are emblematic of her belief that to enact social change, we must embrace a carnivalesque humour, cast doubt on rigidity and wait for the unexpected and absurd.
Text by Constance Chester
Portraits by Arvo Leo and Nyre Tiessen
In the past I wish I had a printer I could connect to my head, but now the worlds that I'm able to build are better than I get to imagine beforehand!
Biography Mette Sterre
born 1983 in Delft, The Netherlands
Education
2019-2021 Post - Graduate Residency Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam (equivalent to phd)
2012-2014 MA Performance Design & Practice at University of the Arts London Central Saint Martins
2011 MA Creative Research & Performance University of Roehampton London
2002-2006 BA Autonomous Visual Art Willem de Kooning Academie Rotterdam
Exhibitions (selection)
2022
Manifesta14 It matters what worlds world worlds: how to tell stories otherwise ___on speculation, Grand Hotel, Prishtina, Kosovo
Come Alive, Muntgebouw, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Miss Alternative World Competition, Shakespeare Globe Theater, London, United Kingdom
2021
Open Studio Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
MIP4, Centro de Experimentação e Informação de Arte, Belo Horizonte Brazil
2020
Queer Bodies Against-___ FLUC, Vienna, Austria
3pesos Trienale Bestos, Mexico City, Mexico
2019
Pleasure Palace Concrete Jungle Kill Joy Kunstpodium T, Tilburg, the Netherlands
2018
It Girl Circus - A circuit of overthinking, Staging Realities, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany
2017
David Roberts Art Foundation 10th anniversary of Frieze evening of Performances , Club Koko, London, United Kingdom
2016
Saiaragaz, Honey You're no Seabunny, Joey Ramone, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (solo)
Megahammer #2, Glasgow International, Glasgow, United Kingdom
2015
Circus of Stillness: The Power over Wild Beasts, Watermill Center, New York, United States
Spotlight on Schawinsky, Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
2014
Hysteria # 3 Abjection CUE Art Fund, New York, United States
Residencies
2021-2022
Performance Maker in residence at the Digital Innovation Lab, Theater Utrecht, The Netherlands
2021
Robots in Captivity, Buitenplaats Doornburgh, Maarssen, The Netherlands
2019-2021
Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2018
Instituto Buena Bista Mondriaan Fund Residency, Willemstad, Curacao
Black Hole Empire, Black Hole Space, Worm, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Failure in Chrome, Wrong Biennale, Digital Art Residency, London, United Kingdom
2017
Digital Anthropology Lab, London College of Fashion, London, United Kingdom
2014+2015
Watermil Summer Program, Watermill Center Laboratory for Performance, New York, United States
Grants/Awards
2021
International presentation Grant Mondriaan Fund for Manifesta Biennale, The Netherlands
2020
Kwintus Art Group Residency bijdrage Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, The Netherlands
2019
Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds/van Tijl Fonds Exceptional Talent Award, The Netherlands
2018
Creative Industries Funds NL Research Design Grant, The Netherlands
International Presentation Grant for Kunstverein Hamburg Mondriaan Fund, The Netherlands
Residency Grant for Instituto Buena Bista, Mondriaan Fund, The Netherlands
2017
Research and Development Fund Centrum of Visual Arts Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Project Fund STICHTING STOKROOS, The Netherlands
2015
Catlin Guide selection of UK Best MA and BA graduates, The Netherlands
Research & Development Grant Centrum Beeldende Kunst Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Byrd Hofmann foundation New York, Bursary for Watermill Summer Program, United States
2014
Byrd Hofmann Foundation New York, Bursary for Watermill Summer Program United States
2013
Fundatie van de Vrijvrouwe van Renswoude study scholarship, The Netherlands
Bekker - La Bastide Fonds study scholarship, The Netherlands
2012
Fundatie van de Vrijvrouwe van Renswoude study scholarship, The Netherlands
Hendrik Muller Vaderlandsch Fonds study scholarship, The Netherlands
Works by Mette Sterre
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Let us Please Populate
2021 / Soft satin high quality glicee print on dibond / 80 x 60 cm / 31.5 x 23.6 in
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Life Expectancy of a Chemical Romance ( 0 is not a number)
2016 / Soft satin glicee print with UV filter on dibond / 60 x 50 cm / 23.6 x 19.7 in
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Partyyyyyy (hiding under a veil of distracting joyeus sabotage camouflage) !!!
2018 / Fine art baryta print on dibond / 50 x 45 cm / 19.7 x 17.7 in
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The best invention since sliced head
2021 / Oil on canvas with handmade wooden frame / 80 x 60 cm / 31.5 x 23.6 in (framed)
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Ssssshhhht
2016 / Photo print on dibond / 70 x 52.5 cm / 27.6 x 20.7 in
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Crystal Mette & the Fictions
2021 / Digital print of analogue created paper cut outs on high quality print paper / 30 x 42 cm / 11.8 x 16.5 in