Project title
Dust and Paint
Research question
How do acts of cleaning or erasure relate to art making?
Project description
Maria Barnas’ research involves giving a voice to cleaner-assistants of the artist Jo Baer. Jo has had cleaners in different stages of her career, in different countries. These were mostly young women artists. Sometimes these women were allowed to help paint her works. Maria aims to speak to them about what they remember of their encounters with Jo. Questions about their own life and work will seep through, touching upon questions about what it is to make art, what it is to leave traces; but also about what it is to clean, erase and be erased in art history.
Barnas will research what ‘cleaning’ means and how it can be understood in the realm of visual art. Can female resistance against erasure be understood as an artform?
Selected publications
- Diamant zonder r (2022), poems published by Uitgeverij van Oorschot
https://www.vanoorschot.nl/oorshop/diamant-zonder-r/ - Nachtboot (2018), poems published by Uitgeverij van Oorschot
https://www.vanoorschot.nl/oorshop/nachtboot/ - A Tree you Trust (2022)
https://www.mariabarnas.com/a-tree-you-trust