Maand: september 2022

Observing, registering, collecting: one can think of various motivations for taking a photograph. The exhibition Souvenir brings together the work of various artists who use the camera in an attempt to preserve particular aspects of everyday reality. To try and capture what would otherwise disappear: an encounter, a time frame, a scent, a fleeting moment. For personal reasons, from a sense of nostalgia for example, sometimes almost compulsively, or simply because it brings pleasure. Although the results are very different from each other, the artists in Souvenir share the human tendency to preserve true experiences or cherished fabrications. Artist, lecturer and alumna HKU Photography Maite Vanhellemont (1990) put together an exhibition for AG from her own practice and interest. The participating artists range from experienced makers to recently graduated talents. Five of them are (guest) teachers and/or alumni of various study programs at the HKU. Especially for the exhibition, Bas Blaasse wrote an essay.

A group exhibition curated by Maite Vanhellemont. With works by Danielle van Ark, Bas Blaasse, Maurice van Es, Ton Grote, Tonya Heeringa, Luka Karssenberg, Thomas Kuijpers, Sjoerd Martens, Petra Stavast, Maite Vanhellemont en / and Godfridus de Vries. Photos made by Maite Vanhellemont

The exhibition Souvenir is on show at Academiegalerie, Utrecht, NL 9/9 - 8/10

Every day we are confronted with more artificiality in our living environment. This habitat is consciously and unconsciously formed by spatial planning and by the traces of passers-by and tourists. We usurp a territory. This habitat is seen by Sjoerd Martens as a mise en scene; a decor that reflects our human activities and a time picture. "In my work, I reshape this decor. Man is absent from this, but due to the immersive nature of the work, I create an experience, a new habitat in which man as a spectator is included. The past presence, the contemporary desolation and the future uncertainty of man are central. The series Photographic Archaeological Research (2017) is commissioned for the Marina Abramović Institute, made after an intense research period on location in Paris. During the investigation, the photographic registrations can be a final stage but also the starting point of the second process; the investigation of the value and analysis of the registrations. View the archive of Photographic archaeological research (2017) at Marina Abramovic Institute

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 85 photographs, and a video-installation.

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