Drawing Front (and back); Quartair, The Hague

Astrid Nobel, 7. 29/32

Astrid Nobel, 7

I’m afraid you are too late to visit the show Drawing Front (and back) at Quartair, which is a pity as it was quite an interesting one. Twenty-five artists gave a small personal artistic biography in drawings, ideally showing a children’s drawing, one from their teens and some more from a later age.

Sarah Pape García, 7

Sarah Pape García, 22

The results were, apart from endearing, sometimes stunning. Although the show is over I thought it was interesting enough to show some pictures for the record.

Femke Bakker, 9

Femke Bakker, 27

Taking presentable pictures of everything was not possible and I’m sorry to say I have no footage of the works by Justin Bennett and Rens Krikhaar because of much too irritating reflections in the glass (Sorry gentlemen, but it was a pleasure seeing them anyway!). The numbers behind the names under the pictures refer to the age of the artists at the moment of drawing.

Babette Wagenvoort

Babette Wagenvoort, 43

Babette Wagenvoort, 33

Babette Wagenvoort, 3

Babette Wagenvoort, 15

Anne Forest, 32

Anne Forest, 8

Anne Forest, 22

Paul van der Eerden, 38

Paul van der Eerden, 61

Johan Gustavsson, 37

Johan Gustavsson, 30

Wieske Wester, 30

Erik Jan Ligtvoet, 17

Erik Jan Ligtvoet

Cybil Scott, 5

Cybil Scott, 26

Melissa Cruz García, 8

Melissa Cruz García, 26

Melissa Cruz García, 36

Michael Karr, 12

Michael Karr, 30

Michael Karr, 20

Tanja Smit, 48

Tanja Smit, 30

Tanja Smit

Johan van Oord, 34

Johan van Oord, 8

Wieteke Heldens

Wieteke Heldens, 3

Channa Boon, 48

Channa Boon, 28

Lieke Peeters, 20

Lieke Peeters, 10

Jorn van Leeuwen, 10

Thom Vink, 42

Marjolijn van der Meij, 15

Marjolijn van der Meij, 45

Ronald Cornelissen, 28

Nina Roos, 5

Nina Roos, 28

Stefanie Scholte, 7

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

 

Bertus Pieters

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Un sentiment de comme si; Gemak/Vrije Academie, The Hague

A lousy, rainy day in The Hague. A good time to see the present show at Gemak, Un sentiment de comme si. It‘s this week only as it is linked to the graduation show at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), which will be opened on Friday July 11th.

It’s made by students of the Master Artistic Research. That may sound horrible, but it is quite interesting.

You are being watched… (actually, i was wearing green trousers).

Artistic research usually means that the thinking is part of the art and that the result, whether visible or not, is only part of that.

And usually it also means language plays an important role. For instance in this work by Quenton Miller you hear a woman’s voice speaking while at the same time you can read subtitles. But in the subtitles words are changed subtly or less subtly.

In another act of clarification-by-mystification Hannah Dawn Henderson, as an anglophone, tries to speak Dutch, while the video shows subtitles in English.

While at the time i was there taking pictures, she did a performance of Cecilia Bengtsson. (By the way, it’s peculiar i always feel these days that either i’m part of the performance or i’m not. These feelings are exchangeable).

Annabel Kanaar strikes a more lyrical note with work about death and parting, while

Sarah Pape García’s impressive project Exercise for Weightlessness occupies a large part of both the Gemak and of your own thinking.

Sharelly Emanuelson shows her intriguing movie Doh Mix Meh Up, quoting E. Glissant: “(…) We all (people from the Caribbean – BP) feel it, we express it in all kinds of hidden and twisted ways, or we fiercely deny it.” Alas, it was too dark to make a proper picture.

And back to language with Julia Reist, whose project is carried out with booklets, monitors, performance etc.

The graduates found inspiration from the works of other artists like Abonnenc, Robert Ashley, Beckett and Dora Garcia, which are exhibited as well.

And if your are reading YOU AND I HAVE BECOME WE, just turn around and see, if it’s raining, how the bikes reflect in the wet pavement, not

because it’s important, but because it’s there.

Click on the pictures to enlarge

Bertus Pieters