In Badriah Hamelink’s work the philosophical study of existence and reality plays a central role. Badriah does not investigate reality as it is given to us from sensory or instrumental perception; she searches for the essence of that reality and what lies beneath it. Without exception Badriah’s artworks are expressions of human states of being. They are abstract answers to abstract questions.
Generally Badriah’s earlier works convey a sense of order. The timeless balance of these sculptures appears to be under such an amount of tension however, that it seems destined to shatter. This force of expansion begins to reveal itself in the act of splitting stones in the following OBEX-series. The rough surfaces bare witness of the randomness that lies at the heart of everything, pointing at the relentless nature of existence. As they violently break loose from their own shackles, these pieces provide a starting point for a fundamental freedom of expression.
Moving away from rationality even further, the work that follows upon the rough stone OBEX series, explores the forces of chaos as an inescapable aspect of existence. By finding beauty in it’s irregularities, Badriah comes to terms with the primordial chaos in such a way, that she redefines it as a new ordering principle.