Eve drew faceless female bodies for as long as her body allowed

Since 2024, Eve has been working on a series of drawings centred on the female body. Through her work, she explores how emotional pain can become embedded in the body and leave physical traces.

The series grew out of her own personal experiences. Her artistic practice became a way of processing trauma. Some of the drawings are based on her own body, while others emerge from her imagination. She draws inspiration from experiences that often remain hidden or go unnoticed. What fascinates her about the female body is how much it can endure and carry throughout a lifetime. Through her work, she aims to leave physical traces of inner experiences and the invisible struggles that people carry with them.

The bodies Eve draws are deliberately faceless. This is both a conceptual and an aesthetic choice. She did not want the drawings to be tied to a specific identity, including her own. By leaving out the faces, she creates space for every woman, or any gendered person, to connect with the work.

For Eve, the graduation project also became a way of reflecting on her years at AKI ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design. Day after day, she worked in her studio, drawing bodies. By spending a week drawing within the installation during the ArtEZ finals, she made that process visible and gave her daily practice a performative dimension. The week unfolded differently than she had expected. Although she created new drawings, she did not fully follow her original plan. Once the walls had been covered with blank paper, she found the space both intimidating and frustrating. As a result, working as freely as she had anticipated proved more difficult.

Eve hopes visitors will not only look at her work but also experience it physically. Through the large scale of her drawings, she wants to make the presence of the body tangible. Rather than encouraging people to view the work quickly, she hopes it invites them to slow down, spend time with it and become more aware of their own feelings. Her intention is not to tell one specific story, but to create space for inner pain and frustration. She hopes visitors will reflect on the body as something shaped by what it has experienced and what it has yet to experience. During the ArtEZ finals, Eve spoke with many visitors. The personal stories they shared with her were among the most meaningful aspects of the project.

Although her time at AKI ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design has come to an end, her artistic practice continues. In September, she will present her first exhibition as a graduate at B93, an artist-run initiative and exhibition space for contemporary art in Enschede. For Eve, this marks the next step in an investigation that is far from over.

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