Encore
2020
 
Giclée print on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl paper.
Size 30x20 cm without white border.
 
“'Encore' is part of the 'Shiver' series I created in 2020, during a period when I worked only at night. I still find myself drawn to working at night, when the unseen awakens. Although I am actually afraid of being outside in the dark, there is something about that uncanny feeling that makes me feel hyper-focused and completely “on.” Small things can trigger me — a shape, a shadow, a sound — creating a different way of looking and working, hunting for that sense that something is off.
 
I often find myself drawn to things that are left behind at night, waiting for the sun to return. A swing hanging still on an empty playground, a trash bin standing beside a bench, quietly waiting for the night to pass. These objects seem almost useless in the darkness, yet somehow become strangely present to me. Sometimes I use artificial light on the spot to change the scene, pushing the surrealistic feeling even further. Like with 'Encore', the light brings the plant out of the darkness, making it feel almost as if it has appeared from another world.
 
These dark figures also comfort me in a way. They make me feel like I’m not the only one waiting for the day to begin.”.
 
Sterre Arentsen (1997) is a Dutch artist currently based in Helsinki. She completed her BA in Crossmedia Design at AKI ArtEZ in the Netherlands in 2022, with analog photography as her primary form of expression. She relocated from the Netherlands to Berlin in 2022 and moved to Helsinki in early 2025. Displacement became her working method. Each new place offers what familiarity cannot: the chance to experience the world through a constantly renewed gaze.
 
Sterre’s artistic practice is born from the observation of the relation between humans and their surroundings, searching for traces they leave behind. She is drawn by moments that have already passed, fragments that have outlived their time. Clear scenes with sharp edges, or abstract frames where color holds everything together. People rarely appear in her images. It's mostly lifeless objects that convey humanity in their place.
 
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