Ingeborg Meulendijks' scale models pare down interiors to their very essence. In an austere space, which often exudes the same serenity and quietude as a Saenredam church interior, our attention is drawn to the few elements worked out in great detail. This may be tiles, miniature woodcuts, or inlaid wooden parquet flooring – all often indistinguishable from their life-size counterparts.  The spare surroundings invite the viewer to look closely, to take in what you see in all its detail and analyze it.  What determines our experience of this space?  What associations does it call up?  The work compels you to ponder the meaning of a house, a home, but also the emotions tied to these concepts. Your own interpretation and memory inevitably play a role.  The photographs the artist presents with the little rooms confuse. They show portions of the scale models as realistic interiors, fully furnished and decorated. The spaces depicted could be actual rooms where people live. Because of how they so obviously steer our interpretation, the photographs seem completely different from their mysterious, empty, 3D likenesses. In addition to photographs, the scale models also feature in short films, in which the models are carried or pulled over rugged, desolate terrain.  Images filmed from both inside the spaces and from the outside reflect the contrast between inside and out, openness and seclusion, vulnerability and security. The rugged natural surroundings heighten our perception of the care, shelter, and refinement associated with the scale models.


From an article by Saskia van de Wiel, art historian