Margaret Lansink
Margaret Lansink is a fine art photographer who lives & works in Amsterdam and Antwerp. Her works have been awarded the Grand Prize of Hariban Award 2019.
MessageCollection: 5. CONCEPT OF MA
In the past period of the Covid-19 pandemic, every human being had to redefine the space in which they lived, worked and interacted. Giving much of us the feeling of being separated as well as being closed off. In the West, we look at space as creating boundaries, as lines defining edges or borders. What would happen if we could embrace Ma; the Japanese concept of viewing space as a pause in time, as an interval or emptiness? Isn’t it also the silence between the notes that make the music…
In 2019, after my residency at Benrido’s Collotype Atelier in Kyoto, I spend another 10 days in Hokkaido around Lake Kussharo, the home grounds for the Ainu people (the indigenous tribe of Japan). The beauty of nature, as well as the tranquillity and space of the landscape, completely overwhelmed me. This had to be ‘Ma’, the pause in time.
One can only be inspired by the power of the concept of Ma. It is the nothingness in these landscapes that enables Ma to speak to you. To wander away from the direct visual impression and to fill the emptiness with your own thoughts and ideas.
In this series my images strive to bring openness to the feeling of being closed off, to illustrate that space entails a promise of growth, of happiness, of energy in search of new horizons. A stark reminder that what isn’t there actually provides the ability for everyone’s story to be created. It is those boundaries of space that allow us and all of our ideas, hopes and dreams to come into existence.
EDITION:
Prints: 7/2AP
- Enticing Silver Gelatin, 2019
- Interval Silver Gelatin, 2019
- Disguise Silver Gelatin, 2021
©Margaret Lansink