© Awoiska van Der Molen, from the series 'Urban (2005-2008)

What does nature represent for you, and why is it so important to photograph it?

Awoiska van der Molen (ADM): I am not a landscape photographer. Instead, with my work, I try to get as close as possible to the unspoiled core of a place. By peeling off the many layers of today’s roaring world, I slowly eliminate the distractions in order to hear, see and experience my surroundings with cleaned senses.
Through a cascade of technological revolutions our societies have evolved enormously over the last few centuries. Our bodies, however, evolve at a much slower pace. I believe that we suffer when we are cut off from nature, when losing our deep connections with it. Yet I do believe that the human body possesses some deep internal memory, an instinct that recognizes when we return to the place from which we stem: the uncorrupted territory of nature. Rather than a registration of my surroundings, the photograph results from the connection I make with nature.

© Awoiska van Der Molen, from the series 'Urban (2005-2008)

We often read that we live in a world where everything has been seen, said, photographed. Yet, in your photographs, there is a certain silence. Such as the result of respectful ascent, an analogical path, of meaning in the making. I wonder how essential this slow practice is to create a visual space that today seems to be lacking?

ADM: My images reflect what I have been feeling being out there for longer periods of time in solitude. Taking time in the processes of making my work is important to gain access to deeper levels of my surrounding. Regardless of how personal the starting point of my work may be, in the end, I hope my images touch the strings of a universal knowledge, something lodged in our bodies, our guts, an intuition that reminds us of where we came from ages ago, a memory of our core existence. In our precarious world this bodily knowledge can be our unyielding certainty. I select the negatives to print that seem to radiate this impalpable space. I prefer that the audience knows nothing about my motives when standing in front of my work. With information and the locations unspecified I just want to invite the viewer to be receptive and to be aware of its own unconscious.

Your early works feature more urban settings. Here the juxtaposition between artifice and nature is evident—a caesura. Urban fiction has preached in recent decades a possibility of harmony between organic vegetation, eco-sustainable materials, and other green Pindaric flights that comfort children's hearts in schools. Unfortunately, the reality mirrors the increasingly hot thermometer. How do you evaluate the relationship between art and nature? Is there a political or militant background to your practice? What are the ethical implications in the representation of nature?

ADM: I see my photo works as pure artistic expression. My current and also the earlier urban works are a reaction to the ongoing acceleration of modern societies. I tend to draw away from it. I do not have, and never had, any activist or political agenda with my work. As such, if there are any ethical implications to be had, it is up to the viewer to reconsider their own relationship with the natural world. I can only wish that my work inspires slowness and care for ourselves and for the place we originate from.

© Awoiska van Der Molen, from the series 'Urban (2005-2008)

How do you evaluate the relationship between art and nature?

ADM: What inspires me most is when the inception of this relationship with nature. In the 6th-century landscape painting had evolved into a high form of arts in China and it embodied the universal longing of cultivated men to escape their daily world to ‘be’ in nature. In the 11th century, the Chinese artist Kuo Hsi wrote in an essay: "Why does a virtuous man take delight in landscapes? It is for these reasons: that in a rustic retreat he may nourish his nature; that amid the carefree play of streams and rocks, he may take delight; that he may constantly meet in the country fishermen, woodcutters, and hermits, and see the soaring of the cranes, and hear the crying of the monkeys…" (Kuo Hsi,  An essay on landscape painting)
The Chinese painter wasn’t someone who needed to ‘re-connect’ with nature, but someone who is already at home, in nature. Someone who is finally truly with himself and participates in the continuous circle of life of nature. To be in nature meant to communicate with a dimension of reality from which human life receives its power.
In ten decades we have used and abused, almost exhausted this nature, the earth. It is needed that works of art confront us –obvious or subtly- with the problems, we’re facing today. It can alert us, facilitate understanding and raise empathy for our environment in a setting outside political chambers. Let's stay hopeful that empathy for nature increases with the big Powers. 

© Awoiska van Der Molen, from the series 'Urban (2005-2008)

© Awoiska van Der Molen, from the series 'Urban (2005-2008)

According to Jung's writings, archetypes emerge as images from the unconscious and cannot be deciphered but are limited to a circumscribable meaning. I find that the choice of black and white reduces the margin of distraction and opens up a deeper experience of the visible natural world. Which perhaps allows us to touch a primordial memory. In this sense, nature releases a mysterious, sacred, and archetypal sensation even in photography, like a hierophany. How do you choose the places you photograph, and what relationship do you establish with them?

ADM: Often the choice of places is inspired by having read or seen something that has fed my curiosity and expectations of the spirit of a secluded area. The first days after arriving I explore the area to see if it radiates a comfortable atmosphere. If not, I travel on until I find a better place. During the days of acclimatizing my body and mind slowly adjust to the poise and patience of the natural area.

© Awoiska van Der Molen, from the series 'Urban (2005-2008)

From a formal and aesthetic point of view, what are your choices?

ADM: This is an intuitive process. My senses and the bodily relations to my surroundings direct me when pressing the camera button. The act of seeing is less crucial even when this may sound odd. Also in selecting images from the contact sheets I am not guided by any rational or intellectual considerations.

Awoiska van der Molen is part of the exhibition 'those eyes - these eyes - they fade', which gathers your photographs with those of Nigel Baldacchino, Bernard Plossu, and Bénédicte Blondeau. Curated by Anne Immelé, the exhibition at Valletta Contemporary (Malta) runs from July 12th through August 13th. 

Awoiska van der Molen (website)