Sjoerd Martens

From 11 January to 12 February 2022 the exhibition 'The last train approaches, preserving my dearest memories without being alone' will be on show at The White in Tokyo, Japan. Together with artist Ikuhisa Sawada (澤田育久), we developed a spatial installation as a duo show. The White is located near the Tokyo Imperial Palace and National Museum of Modern Art. For more information, please check the website of The White.   シュールト マルテンス（Sjoerd Martens）/ 澤田育久（Ikuhisa Sawada） 「The last train approaches, preserving my dearest memories without being alone.」   2022年01月11日 〜2022年02月05日 13:00〜19:00 日曜・月曜休み

For the exhibition Intermezzo (2021) at Dyad on the Spuistraat in Amsterdam, the window installation was on view the entire summer of 2021, accessible to everyone, from close by or far away, day and night.

For the spatial research of my practice, I investigated a specific color pigment of different plastic artifacts captured in car parks. From a location of little prestige in public space to a stage elevated above the audience in public space. Characterized at a distance by the upper striking windows and up-close by the multidisciplinary ensemble inside, seen through the window, of sculptures and wall coverings. The building has a history with some curious stories, from brothel to squatters' residences, and now a final tribute to the free spirits housed there.

I present a 4-floor window installation where old and new works meet for the first time. Please take a look from far away or very close. It’s up to you. On show at Dyad, Spuistraat 59, Amsterdam - May 2021 - Sept 2021

Video: The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision’s RE:VIVE initiative and Dekmantel teamed up for the third time to invite artists to bring fresh music to a curation of Dutch archival films. This year Artificial Dance label boss Interstellar Funk teamed up with visual artist Sjoerd Martens and visual artist and composer Guenter Råler.

Instead of producers composing music for pre-existing films, Interstellar Funk teamed up with visual artist Sjoerd Martens who stylized and edited several 1930s films from the Sound and Vision collection resulting in a completely new visual work. As well, Guenter Råler, an accomplished visual artist in her own right, created a new film based on the Sound and Vision Natuurbeelden collection, a large open data-set of raw nature films.

Seasonshore Sequences, 1400×1080 / 4:3 HD color 00:15:16 Stereo. Supported by Mondrian Fund.

Dekmantel Records: V/A - Scores III: Dekmantel once again teams up with RE:VIVE, the cultural initiative setup by the The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, to pair modern electronic talent with Dutch archival footage. The third EP in the Scores series sees Interstellar Funk and Italian producer Guenter Råler create innovative, modular soundscapes to the graceful visual arts unearthed from the Sound & Vision archives.

As Interstellar Funk, Olf van Elden uses his production competency to craft a heavenly arpeggiated, synth composition to the amateur aquarium movies by J.L. Clement which are edited for this project by Sjoerd Martens. Filmed in the 1940’s, the video’s turn-of-the-century black-and-white style aquatic footage is reanimated through van Elden’s tacit polyphonic, modular sonic soundtrack. Layering together multiple sequences, van Elden pieces together the music as a whole, to mimic the way in which the film was created.

On the B-Side, Italian abstract artist and Dutch native Guenter Raler concocts a deeply introspective, and perfectly choreographed, ambient soundtrack to a select series of pieced together clips from the Collectie Natuurbeelden, [the Institute’s Collection of Natural Images]. The music plays against the depiction of multiple biological communities in transition; what is referred to as an ecotone. The title itself not only recalls that of a musical tone, but represents the ever-evolving aspect of life and nature as similar colours, along with movements of animals and plants pass on from one image to the next.

Within their own right, the new scores not only give the age-old films new context and sonic character, but exist as creative works as their own, full of resonance and individualism that highlight the retrospective artists’ voices to their fullest.

Dekmantel Records: V/A - Scores III is available on vinyl and digital.

I am pleased to announce, the National Archaeological Museum Aruba will open the exhibition My Neighbor has Petroglyphs in her Backyard at March 16th. The exhibition features fourteen different finely crafted photo works and a video installation. On show till December 2022.

In last decades Aruba developed explosively because of tourism and prior to that because of oil companies. On the grounds of these becoming increasingly rare pristine landscapes, including the unique rock drawings of Aruba, being infiltrated by building structures. These drawings are part of the islands' cultural heritage and an indispensable link between the Aruban identity and the indigenous past. However, they have no legally protected status. Today the drawings function as a tourist attraction, are located on private land (thus private property), and in the most distressing cases are vandalized or completely destroyed. The need for a legally protected status is high to prevent an increase in these cases.

In this project, the boundaries between pristine nature, cultivated nature, cultural heritage, and (natural) property are blurred through the process of various collage techniques. This so-called painting with pixels studies the hidden meanings of the visions of the future depicted in the drawings, precisely by dissecting and reconstructing the inextricable relationship with the living environment around the site. The location, many centuries ago, served as a presumed sacred place that gave birth to the drawings, now shares the same location of contradictory contemporary practices. At this moment, the past human presence, present abandonedness, and future uncertainty meet for the first time. Not sure how long this precious landscape will continue to live in its current form, whether the drawings can influence it, or whether they will move with the times of change.

The constantly changing landscapes may be halted temporarily through this project. The new perspectives offer a possible handle to restore the protective religious function of the rock drawings.

This project underlines both protected and unprotected cases, figurative and non-figurative drawings. In consideration of the rock drawings' protection and privacy of the property owners, no locations will be mentioned.

The research part of this project was made possible by the financial contribution of the Mondriaan Fund. Special thanks to MANA, Casnan Aruba, the kind property owners, family and friends, and my loving partner who was born and raised on the island.

This project includes seven triptychs, various photos, and a video-installation.

This video performance has presented at various locations: Duotoon, Lynk & Co, Fiber Festival, Tolhuistuin, La Biennale di Venezia, Microclima Venice.

'Thessa and I have known each other for some time. In this time that could be considered uncertain, this project gave us the opportunity to start research the relationship between the two of us, our natural environment, and the reflections through two different mediums. In an organic process in which the natural environment is recorded, dissected, modified, and reconnected, it carries a new home. It is a reflection in which sound reveals itself in images, and the image reveals itself in sound but over and above, continues to encourage each other. Also, it gives a new shape as an alternative for the traditional album cover, so it doesn’t disappear between the usual record collection. On both sides of our process, we have experienced the same increasing almost parallel development. Featuring that we do not criticise nor complement each other but let actions influence each other. We attach a high value to self-development within our processes. In some phases of the process, it is necessary to disengage, but at the other moment, you cannot do without each other. The beauty in this new work is that one does not exist without the other. For instance, the use of the glockenspiel and the pearlescent garage do not come out of the blue. The direct printing technique on aluminum makes the piece sculpture of our legacy, which in turn stems from the strong metal melody of the glockenspiel. I see it as a form of communication in the relationship between different elements in development. The project ‘Birds Sing Like The Horn Of A Truck’ tests an expedition through various transformations in both analog and digital landscape. In this way, we discover the fertility of unharmed textures, pure natural colours, the serenity in harmony with remnants of artefacts, abandoned footprints, and interruptions. Both image and sound are composed of dozens of samples. These merge as a community that questions the manufacturability of our nature.'

Printed directly on dibond, 40x32 cm for sale at Duotoon

Project series in progress - Radioactive Bodies (2020) / portraying the architecture of radioactivity. The visual study of Radioactive Bodies is published in a small series of artist publications De Reeks. It's available for purchase, more information at the website of De Reeks.

Radioactive Bodies is a visual study of the high levels of radiation in Sweden caused by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Several self-documented territories meet each other in which radiation level data confesses surprising discoveries. From the heart of the Ukrainian nuclear exclusion zone, the surrounding abandoned habitat to public recreation parks around the capital Stockholm in Sweden. Some cases in Sweden don’t show any difference in radiation levels or even have higher levels than the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine.

This project is made possible with the financial support of Mondriaan Fund.

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.

4032×3024 / 4:3 HD color 00:19:50 Stereo

Installation photos 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.