Sjoerd Martens

Due to the recent lockdown, man temporarily limited himself from his territory, allowing paradise to breathe again. Our exposed living environment was given an unprecedented context, the vision of which turned out to be destructive or invisible. The new earth is the same earth but with a new perspective in our sanctuary, with the chance to approach it in a different form.

Unborn Bodies is a seven-part scroll, made up of hundreds of photo registrations made into photo-realistic collages that create the illusion of an existing landscape. It sketches a dubious vision in which the first step seems to be taken again in a new acquaintance, which takes place in the past, present and future. Reality is indistinguishable from visions as is the groundless threat that may be attractive or never seen before.

The panorama collages correspond to the coordinates of the documented Arowak petroglyphs. These pre-Columbian image makers used an unusual narrative method in which different information intersected by two-color overlapping pigments. The original pictograms are located in sacred places important to the image makers. The legacy from these visualizations is a representation of a future perspective which also cultivates in the contemporary collage images. This preserved material cultural heritage once again seems to bring about an old religious protective position to a bygone yet arriving home as a revelation yet to be identified.

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Project series in progress - Radiation Exposure (2020), a documentary series which explores the above average radiation level in Sweden as a result of the nuclear accident of the Chernobyl disaster that occurred on Saturday 26 April 1986. An investigation and exposure to similarities in radiation levels on different forms of living environments nowadays in both Ukraine and Sweden.

Everyday we are confronted by more and more artificiality in our surroundings. Our natural spaces are slowly transforming into a mise en scène that reflects our human activities. Simultaneously, it can also be seen as a device that we employ as we desire. Earthskin (2019) is a botanical artwork. A video sculpture consisting of flora and artifacts extracted from our everyday lives; traces left behind in the Amsterdam parks and beds, from cigarette filters to bicycle parts, plastic and glass to jewelry. These elements not only exist in the grand scheme of things but also form their own microcosm. The viewer is brought into an unknown environment by micrography and collage. A microcosm of human spores elevates to macrocosm: Organic and synthetic bodies circulate seamlessly, creating an unknown habitat and breathing space. What we previously could not perceive has now been immortalized in a new digital creation. The soundtrack provides an undertone of threat and dystopia, which is at the same time also seductive.

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Installation photos from the Patty Morgan show Klas 1b at De School, Amsterdam.

An idea of a dystopian but seductive cosmos is extended into a video work of a much larger scale. Clouds are Changing (2019) is an immersive video, projected on 150 square meters for Canvas in TivoliVredenburg. Because of the life-size surface of the projection and the windows next to it where you have a view of the city of Utrecht, the projection gives the impression that you can look out through the physical walls of the space into a gigantic starry sky that opens up a new world. Due to the different surfaces of the canvas and the large surface area of the video, which moves across all surfaces, the image seems to fragment, bend and crumple.

In commission of TivoliVredenburg a 150m² videowork is made for Canvas. On show november 2019 - march 2020. More info can be found on the website of TivoliVredenburg. Installation shot at Canvas opening night.

This series has emerged from the Scenery of Japan (2018) series. After combining elements into a new landscape in the collages, now a whole new narrative element has been added. Playgrounds (2019) is made in the three Japanese cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo have been digitally manipulated with fire seas. The playground is pre-eminently a location that is perceived as unheimlich without human presence. Leaving the playground could be seen as the end of youth, which is captured in this image through the destruction of the playground. However, the fire can also be seen as an age-old place for a human encounter.

In clothing line Exclusive healing energy (2019), Chinese clothing designer Sassy Lassy (a.k.a. 潔廁林) processed digital collage patterns made by Sjoerd Martens. The prints on the futuristic swimwear line are made up of images of mainly street waste, ice cubes, cubist shapes abstracted from glass dessert dishes; a non-biodegradable artifact. See more of the Exclusive healing energy project in Zhejiang.

In commission of Nous'klaer Audio for upsammy’s LP Wild Chamber

"In many ways Spring seems to be the perfect seasonal match for upsammy: no matter the tempo nor intensity, her style is colourful, restorative and carries a tangible promise of new beginnings. So Wild Chamber arrives at the right time, but it is an evergreen package – eight songs to slot into different situations, to speak to different moods, yet come from the same heart. A mini-LP that captures dawn mist, reflecting-pool shimmer, and occasional flashes of brilliant blue light. Swells of bass sag and yawn, time signatures switch up and break down, drums stutter and charge, and gossamer melodic trails are traced like ice skates atop a thawing lake. Innumerable shards of ideas are present, yet the music is airy and uncluttered. Wild Chamber is upsammy at her most pure, sketching sonic miniatures with a precise eye and an inquisitive ear quite unlike anyone else’s right now." https://youtu.be/R1mIX76GHfs Music video For vinyl: fanlink.to/wildchamber Text from above by Gabriel Szatan

For the exhibition Self-publish or be damned, I’ve made a printed zine (16 pages) filled with photos from this fall captured in Sweden. Together with some flora and artifacts scans of the Earthskin project. On show from Nov 29th – Dec 21th at Academiegalerie, Utrecht.

Installation photo at Garage Noord, Amsterdam.

Mixed media printed on plexiglass and aluminium.

In the series Scenery of Japan (2018) the scenic is brought to the table by developing digital manipulation and collage techniques. Images captured during an expedition through Central and Southern Japan, are combined in different perspectives on the same setting and through a realistic collage of photographic material. Through this technique is tried to capture not only human traces but also the poetry, energy of the environment and human presence in the image. The series is presented in the form of prints, in which a combination is used of prints on photo paper and glossy prints of collage on plexiglass and aluminum.