Screenscapes are depictions of a world where the virtual world slides into reality. What we see is just a make-believe reality, a copy of something whose original we have lost. Nadja Willekens opts for these screenscapes, cityscapes viewed from a Hopperian perspective.
The window gives way to the computer screen, and the panorama transforms into a composite city, an infinite city viewed from various angles. Characters wander alone, isolated by the assembled urban landscape.
Nature intrudes merely as sudden natural elements and disrupts the composition, floating and colliding. It symbolizes a desire to return to the diminishing natural world. Ruins as a motif frequently appear in Willekens' work, symbolizing impermanence and transience while leaving a trace of history and memory. In the context of her exploration of reality and virtuality, the ruin becomes a visual representation of the remnants of a previous reality as new virtual worlds and simulations emerge. Indirectly, the overgrown ruin also alludes to nature disrupted by human interventions, the vulnerability of nature, and the fragility of our environment.
Nadja Willekens draws inspiration from Japanese woodblock printing for her execution. She designs an original print, a shita-e, using digital techniques. The line work, decorative details like patterns and plants, are set in black and printed in white on wood using printing techniques, creating a perfectly reproducible image. Unlike ukiyo-e, she uses only the original print and works on it with various mixed media techniques.
