About
Esther Venrooij considers her dual roles as artist and composer as occupying two different sensorial planes. She creates work in a variety of media, such as composed music, improvised combinations of electronica, video and site-specific installations. With a sharp focus, both in her studies and creative impulses on audio topography, she explores the way sound and movements inhabits space. Having collaborated live and in the studio with a variety of visual, sound and dance artists, Venrooij’s biography reads like a mixed media map of projects. She has performed and presented her works extensively for audiences in Europe, Asia and United States. In November 2015, she completed her PhD studies in Art at KULeuven with an exhibition of a series of sound installations and a dissertation: ‘Audio Topography: The Interaction of Sound, Space and Medium’. In 2018, she was granted a ZAP-mandate at KULeuven, in the field “Spatial Experiences: Spatial Experiences: Visual, Auditory, Sensorimotor, Tactile and Conceptual” and is she supervising doctoral research projects.
When I started creating electronic compositions during the years I studied and worked with Jim Fulkerson in the late ‘90s, he opened the door for me to the art world, encouraging me to question things, and rarely offering answers. Feeling liberated after my despondent days with the Sicherheitspolizei and co. (The building of the conservatory in Arnhem was a base for the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police, or ‘SiPo’) in the Nazi era), I surrendered to the acts of observation and constant questioning. During our weekly meetings in his narrow and dusty electronic studio space Jim and I pondered over my works – a mortifying process because of my doubts and fears about being a Composer with a capital ‘c’ (the conservatoires had prepared me well for this).