About
Tijn Meulendijks (Geldrop,The Netherlands 1973) is best-known for his large-scale, immersive installations that reinterpret and recreate a natural environment within the gallery space. He approaches his work with the dual scientific/aesthete mindset of a botanist-cum-artist.it crosses the boundaries of contemporary art , natural sciences and floral design .
Meulendijks obtained a Master’s Degree in Floral Design in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands before migrating to Far North Queensland in 2004. He has cultivated a lifelong interest in botany, collecting and documenting plant remnants, soil, seeds, species of vegetation and other organic materials to use in his installations, works on paper and floral designs.
A meticulous recreation of the elaborate, often haphazard compositions found in nature, his novel compositions isolate, transplant and reposition organic elements to provoke a sensory experience in the viewer. Meulendijks simultaneously shows great restraint and a respect for his materials by methodically preserving them and allowing their natural forms to guide his creative process.
His work is not about the end result alone, but about the process of making, its thinking, meditating, caring. Ultimately, the affect of the plant world upon human emotion is inspirational, a fundamental recognition of the life force around us.
A continuous experience showing various stages of natural cycles, germinating, growth and decay.
Vegetative sculptures transform the gallery space by redefining its proportions or rerouting the movement of people. By positioning organic elements as art objects Meulendijks calls into question the very nature of creativity. His installations are often ephemeral in the same way the environment is vulnerable to human interference.