Iris Le Rütte | Museum Beelden aan Zee | Beeldhouwkunst in Den Haag

Iris Le Rütte

30 October 2015 - 7 February 2016

Iris Le Rütte

Shadow place

The oeuvre of Iris Le Rütte (1960) is poetic, in her work - which is shown in the public space - she shows the life from a rahter fairy-like side. A boat is pushed by a golden hand or two golden hands hold a sheet that takes the form of a bench: Le Rütte invites her audience to take place in her universe. She is known for her caravan of dromedaries in Amsterdam; only a silhouette of the animals is visible. Her sculptures in the public space always take its audiences into another world; a world that does not shy away from reality, but rahter creates space for romance, reflection and softness. This autumn she will be showing a selection of her sculptures, drawings and poems in the Shade Spot exhibition at museum Beelden aan Zee.

Le Rütte's sources of inspiration are poetry and literature. Not seldomly, her work refers to passages from the work of Rainer Maria Rilke or the Metamorphoses of Ovidius. Museum Beelden aan Zee bought the monumental bronze sculpture Daphne a few years ago. This work shows the metamorphosis of the beautiful nymph Daphne who, according to the story of Ovidius, escapes her divine lover Apollo by turning into a laurel tree. The image captures the moment when the beauty of the nymph is still clearly visible, but her head and arms have already changed into the branches of the laurel tree. The sculpture found itself a permanent, most honorable place on the highest terrace of the museum.

In the exhibition Shadow Place all familiar elements from Le Rütte's oeuvre are covered: monumental bronze sculptures including various versions of her Daphne, a number of small plastic sculptures, a selection of her recent drawings and a number of poems from her collection Ik dicht je bij me (I poeticize/hold you near me), which was first published in May 2015. For Le Rütte, the combination of poetry and visual art is self-evident. She says about this: "Modeling is: taking away things, sticking and starting again, just like poetry."

Iris Le Rütte’s work is versatile, poetic and multi-layered. Her creations form an individual universe where people, animals and things are forced to search for balance, and constantly teeter on the edge of what’s feasible. Schaduwplaats features a selection of her sculptures, drawings and poetry.