Geertje Brandenburg

Geertje Brandenburg, 1998, is a Dutch artist who works with photography, collage, installation and text. In artworks built up from her extensive visual archive, Geertje questions the versatility of identity. As someone named after several people Geertje interweaves herself with others, presenting a version of the truth that fluctuates between myth and a half-remembered moment. Geertje’s work is rooted in collage and the archive, photos taken from their original context are combined with text written by the artist herself. Through appropriating materials from the archive and combining them with personal stories Geertje creates a world in which she is both her grandmother and an unknown woman in a photo. Her sister’s dreams become her own, and words written by a stranger become notes in her own diary. This fluid approach to the autobiographical makes Geertje’s work feel like a dream that you are trying to remember, but can’t quite puzzle together.