Daughters of Lilith
Ori van Gelderen
Antwerpen Belgium
About
My work explores grotesque embodiment, mythology, transformation, and emotional worldbuilding through installation, sculpture, ceramics, painting, and mixed media. I create immersive symbolic environments where beauty and horror, vulnerability and protection, softness and violence can exist simultaneously without needing resolution.
Drawing from feminist theory, Jewish mysticism, Japanese folklore, bodily experience, and contemporary visual culture, I use recurring creatures, masks, bodily forms, and ritual-like spaces to explore femininity as something unstable, emotional, transformative, and deeply physical. My installations often function as emotional ecosystems or temporary temples where viewers can physically enter symbolic environments shaped by pain, desire, memory, transformation, and contradiction.
Rather than creating fixed narratives, I am interested in building worlds where bodily realities that are often hidden or socially controlled can exist openly. Through grotesque imagery and artistic worldbuilding, I attempt to create spaces where emotional truth, vulnerability, monstrosity, and self-authorship become visible simultaneously.
Project
Daughters of Lilith explores grotesque embodiment, mythology, and emotional worldbuilding through installation, sculpture, ceramics, painting, and mixed media. Drawing from feminist theory, Jewish mysticism, bodily experience, and Japanese folklore, the work creates immersive symbolic environments where beauty, horror, vulnerability, and transformation coexist. Through recurring creatures, masks, bodily forms, and ritual-like spaces, the project investigates femininity as unstable, emotional, and transformative. The installations function as emotional ecosystems that invite viewers to physically enter worlds shaped by contradiction, memory, pain, desire, and self authorship.
