Charlotte Verhaeghe

Where do you find inspiration?
In everyday life. In patterns, systems, contradictions. I constantly observe how things balance - or fail to balance - in the world around me. My work often starts from questions rather than answers. I feel a constant urge to understand, the need to translate what I observe and think into something tangible. Creating is a way of processing the world and celebrating its beauty. Art allows us to reflect on systems we normally take for granted. It creates space for questioning, not necessarily to give answers, but to make us aware of complexity, contradiction, and possibility.
My current work stems from ongoing questions about societal systems. By working around a theme like “community” and in this work combining ecological and non-ecological materials, playing with repetition and puzzling, I try to reflect.

Tell us about your favorite medium
My practice doesn’t prioritize one medium over another. Instead, I choose materials based on what a work requires to exist. I’m interested in how an idea can unfold from a flat surface into a physical object, and further into a space that can be experienced.
I work across materials, often combining soft and hard elements in my sculptures. Recently I’ve been drawn to bio-ecological materials, combined with reflective or industrial components. I’m interested in how materials carry meaning - softness can invite, while harder or reflective elements can create distance and awareness.

What’s your background?
I position myself as a visual artist working through a research-based, interdisciplinary lens. Through my engineering background, I tend to think in systems, structures, and balances. Alongside my engineering background, I have been engaged with art from an early age, both through training and growing up in a creative environment. I feel a constant tension between rational thinking and intuitive creation. My work exists exactly in that space - between logic and emotion, control and surrender.
I see my artistic practice as an evolving body, in which each piece of art I create is part of a larger investigation. My background gave me tools to think critically and systematically, which I now apply in an artistic context.


How do you develop your art skills?
Through continuous experimentation. I approach my work almost like research, testing, failing, refining, and questioning. I often start from a simple idea or observation and develop it through making, rather than fully planning it in advance. This process allows unexpected outcomes to emerge, which I then analyze and build on.
I’m quite critical of my own work, which pushes me to keep improving and rethinking decisions. At the same time, I try not to over-direct the process, so there remains space for intuition and discovery. You will always see me trying to find and maintain that balance.


How can your work affect societal issues?
My work questions systems and operates across multiple layers. This can be societal systems, or constructs like functionality and productivity. For example, by working around a theme like “community” and in this work combining ecological and non-ecological materials, playing with repetition and puzzling, I try to reflect.