Art for government property 2000 - 2003
Tattoos have always been popular with delinquenst. And although tattooing yourself has now become fashionable for lots of people, especially the young, tattoos still carry something of an air of rebelion against the established order. Marleen van Wijngaarden used this as a point of departure for her interpretation of the commission, adapting and enlarging photographs of tattoos onto tranparent foil and sticking the to the windows. Her task was complicated by the fact that the artists working in the institution were not allowed to make explicit references to sex or violence in their work. Despite these contraints, she has produced a convincing and compelling series which is strikingly subtle in its use of colour.