At the crossroads where ecology, motherhood, and old stories meet, my practice opens like a quiet threshold into the mystery of Earth. I move through the world believing in its wholeness—its marvelous co-existence of life forces—and try to give that perception a language both tender and strange. I tell stories that are not only mine: reflections of reciprocity and animism, places softened at the edges where memory and matter fold into one another.

I collect earth, grind it, extract color from stone and soil—each pigment a remnant of deep time knowledge, exploring a kaleidoscope of landscapes that hold geologic memories.

My mixed ancestry of Finnish, Dutch, and Indonesian brings me into questions around belonging to places as well as offers insights into challenging realities of the world and its history. I believe that the keys lay close to Earth, in the foundation of life herself. Like a fundamental lifeline to us humans as species. My work is a way to tend to these questions: to repair the slow rifts between us and the land, to let care be the form that binds us together.


ARTIST BIO

Joséphine Klerks (b.1990) is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Swedish archipelago. Her work spans through several mediums such as painting, illustration, textile, photography and poetry. From early on she has explored the relationship between minerals, rocks and soil, immersing herself in the ancient practice of earth-pigment making.

Klerks' artistic foundation lies in illustration and design, earning a BA in Visual Design and Media, with additional studies at Gerlesborg School of Fine Art (Bohuslän, Sweden) and Art History studies at Stockholm University. Side by side with her artmaking she has worked as a freelance illustrator for clients such as Artipoppe and Hayhouse Publishing.


EXHIBITIONS



2024 Konsthall C - centrifug, solo exhibition: Dreaming Soil, Stockholm.
2018 Solhem Konsthall - Group exhibition, Bohuslän, Sweden. 

2017 Site specific installation , The Cube, Jericho Beach, Vancouver.

2016 Konstart Stockholm - Group exhibition curated by Martin Sjölander.
2016 Group exhibition, Tell her - Studio Analog, Stockholm, Sweden.


WORKSHOPS

2025 Spring break crafting for children at Ljusterö Konsthall.
2018 Workshop for children in textile plant dyeing at Emåns ekomuseum.