Still image from the stop motion animation Departing Arriving.|Photo courtesy of Burnaby Art Gallery

Saskia Jetten likes to make faces. A celebrated Dutch artist who recently immigrated to Vancouver, Jetten’s works are in the form of masks, clowns, comics, cartoons and puppets that dot the gallery space at the Burnaby Art Gallery (BAG) until June 22. Some faces are playfully recognizable, such as a clown, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck; other faces are more serious and elusive. Many of the faces suggest two different facets of the same person or conflicted emotions between playfulness and melancholy. As Jennifer Cane, the assistant curator of BAG points out, visitors who have immigration experience may recognize in Jetten’s work the tension of negotiating a new identity in Canada.

“It is the bittersweet emotions of immigrating,” Cane comments on the Saskia Jetten exhibition that she curated.

Jetten has won the most prestigious award of printmaking in Netherland. Over twenty years of her career as an artist, her works have been shown internationally. This exhibition is her first solo show in Vancouver that includes both her recent works produced in Vancouver and works from
the Netherlands.

Playing with faces and masks

“The immigration is very much connected to my recent work,” says Jetten. ”When I approached people here and tried to make a joke, some did not get it. So I had to change a little bit. Part of my identity also changed a little bit. Since my experience has changed, I need to make some changes in my works too.”

The negotiation of one’s true self and its presentation can be seen in Jetten’s pieces where she plays with faces and masks. In the work titled Faces and Masks for example, a portrait of a human face is printed on a piece of translucent paper and is layered with another translucent paper which displays a mask. These papers are hung from the ceiling so that viewers can walk around to see through both the face and the mask.

“When people are feeling insecure, they tend to put on a mask,” Jetten says.

However, Jetten states that masking is more than hiding one’s true face. For her, masking is also more complex.

“It is not hiding because it is expressing what life is about,” she says.

This dynamic is woven into her works and provokes thoughts on the real and the surreal immigrating experience.

Themes beyond immigration

While immigration can be challenging, Jetten offers a positive attitude. Clowns are another recurrent subject in her works. Jetten says that she dreamed of becoming a clown as a kid.

“A clown is laughing away our own difficulties,” Jetten says.

The clown personality helps her to make light of difficult topics.

Although the foundation of her works is much broader than the theme of immigration, Jetten says she is open to interpretation. She refers to her artistic process as the way she lives.

This is the experience many fellow Canadian immigrants can relate to, according to Cane. She sees her works as a story.

“It depicts a voyage from loss of identity, to a sense of conflicted personas, to newfound self.”

Cane reflects her own experience of becoming someone new.

“It is the feelings of loss, but also of growth,” says Cane.

“It is an identity shift of who you were in your homeland, and who you are in your new chosen home.”

For more information, visit Things to Do at www.burnaby.ca or saskiajetten.com