With the "Pain in ɘM" I allowed my synesthetic experiences to play a part in my workр by using it as a tool in sense of a vehicle to enable a kind of communication, crossing the borders of time. It was an attempt to get more in touch with parts of my background that lie in Indonesia and the colonial past that is inextricably linked to it, and more specifically, my great-grandmother Painem.
Her name is red.
With the mirrored notation of “Me” in the title of the work I want to indicate a direction in communicating, coming out of me (or any person), returning back in, where the ability lies of using the channels to speak with the ancestors. The name of Painem hidden in this, of course, cannot be a coincidence.
An important element within my recent work is the 80 year old Singer sewing machine from the inheritance of my grandmother. Where the phrase "it feels like the spirit of my ancestors speaks through me" may sound vague and hovering, It also means quite concretely, that every piece stitched together with this Singer sewing machine went indirectly through my grandmother's fingers and thus through the fingers of the generations of mothers who came before her. In that way, I see it as another instrument of communication between my ancestors and me. One that I can physically grasp, of solid material outside my head.
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Her works have been exhibited at venues such as TENT Rotterdam, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Galerie Nouvelles Images The Hague, the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, the Triennial of Graphic Arts in Novosibirsk, Kunstgebäude Stuttgart, and the Sofia City Art Gallery. Chivikov has received the Royal Award for Modern Painting (2011) and the Buning Brongers Award (2004). Her work was supported by Stroom The Hague and the Mondriaan Fund in Amsterdam between 2016 and 2020.
At the core of her practice is drawing, which she uses as a primary mode of expression and as a defining component in her performances and video works—particularly in collaboration with Voin de Voin. Their joint work emerges from a shared connection rooted in their family histories. Marie deepens her exploration from personal biography into ethical questions around origin, history, ethnicity, and familial ties. A significant element in the transformation of her paintings is an 80-year-old Singer sewing machine passed down from her grandmother: every piece stitched with it carries an indirect continuity through generations of women before her. In this way, her paintings—like shells of the past—become living skins that inform and evolve alongside her collaborative work.
Website: mariecivikov.nl