Arja Spronken studied at the Academie Beeldende Kunsten in Maastricht (ABKM) and graduated with distinction. She specialises in sculptural work and jewellery. For her jewellery she often works with silver and gold and masters traditional goldsmithing techniques.
Embossing and repoussé (the hammering of the reverse side of a metal sheet to create a design in low relief) are some of her specialities.
Arja also uses photography in her work. She is fascinated by digital imagery and creates images that are reworked with ‘digital paint’. She sees these new images as light, floating in-between different media and unbound to a physical materiality.
INNOCENCE IN DISGUISE & PIAZZA CAMPO DE FIORI
Innocence in disguise —
“One single disarming look can be more powerful than any calculated control of mind. It lures you in, makes promises of worlds unsought and vanishes with the simple blink of an eye.”
– Veii Jacobs

Piazza Campo de Fiori —
Piazza Campo de Fiori is a statue Arja made after a journey to Rome. It is a mixed media collage; a bamboo photo print fixed on a wall of burned wood. Two polychrome figures cast in silver are displayed in front of the wall. The girl that is standing on the balcony is blowing soap bubbles, a metaphor for innocence and youth. The two theatrical figures in the girl’s horizon are in a different material dimension and represent our loved ones and embody mortality.

“She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together”
– J.D Sallinger