London-based Dutch artist Tisna Westerhof is exhibiting works at the Dutch Centre, at Austin Friars in the City of London, as part of her exhibition entitled “Digest”.

From ‘Costume Drama’ by Tisna Westerhof.

This cleverly-titled exhibition – playing on the word’s double meaning, relating to food and digestion, and also to a compilation of material – brings together large embroidered portraits from her ‘Costume Drama‘ series; screen prints of Delft Blue vases from ‘Vessels‘; ceramic tiles from her ‘Delft Blue‘ collection; and works from the original ‘Digest‘ series: paper plates decorated with images from newspaper reports in Delftware style.

“Digest” is a clever reference not only to the eclectic nature of this collection and of course to the Delft Blue plates and vessels that are carriers of food and drink about to be digested, but also a strong nod to the compilation of news stories from the last 24 months, evident in the works. These include news events and their associated slogans, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, the loss of Flight MH17, Free Our Girls, the Ebola Virus epidemic, Je Suis Charlie and the war in Syria.

Works from ‘Delft Blue’ by Tisna Westerhof.

The gravitas of the ceramic tiles in ‘Delft Blue‘ is felt thanks to the fact the medium harks back to centuries of Dutch cultural tradition, but jars with the somewhat banal subject matter: modern cityscapes interspersed with larger-than-life child figures, playing in the Thames, hanging off buildings, swimming in floodwaters. The manner of the representations – detailed cities, almost photographic in depiction, against the simply-drawn children – only adds to this dissonance.

These conjoined subject matters are absurd together, but the nonsensical juxtapositioning left me wondering: what would children – these giant children in the paintings – make of our odd, modern lives?

Perhaps the addition of the children in these painted tiles helps create even more mental distance between the viewer and the cityscapes, and this distance helpfully lets us consider the ceramics as perhaps a modern representation of life, through Delft, rather than pretty decoration.

From ‘Digest’ by Tisna Westerhof.

The plates painted in the Delft Blue style were a particular favourite of mine. While the plates were sadly only made of paper, I did find that the blue paint does indeed help mimic the old ceramic panting style. Plus, the disposable nature of the plates is perhaps preferred to ceramic, as it helps to highlight the throwaway nature of modern life.

Again, the absurdity and banality of juxtapositioning the “ornamental” identity of painted plates with some fairly sobering topics, produces dissonance and gives the viewer pause.

A painting of the Nigerian schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram is encircled by decorative flowers; crowds waving ‘Je Suis Charlie’ signs are framed by lace and more blooms; body bags filled with victims of Ebola, and medical

From ‘Digest’ by Tisna Westerhof. 

workers in protective bodysuits, are surrounded by a pretty pattern.
Part comment on our collective desensitisation to the horrors in the news, part sociological record of our times, these plates are so original, if not in subject matter, then certainly in execution and format.

I thoroughly enjoyed puzzling over these works; hopefully you will too.

For full details of the works on display, please visit Tisna’s website at www.tisna.com.

From ‘Digest’ by Tisna Westerhof.