Cross Pollination 2020
Kunstwandeling EB | Art walk EB MUSEUM SCHOKLAND
Netherlands
Kunstwandeling EB | Art walk EB MUSEUM SCHOKLAND
Netherlands
Kruisbestuiving
Zes kunstenaars van 4 verschillende continenten brengen hun ideeën samen in deze installatie. De zes vrouwen kennen elkaar van hun internationale nomadische kunstenaarsbestaan, dat door de corona pandemie plotseling tot stilstand kwam. Ontmoeting en uitwisseling zijn een belangrijke bron om een situatie van eb te overstijgen. Het idee voor de ‘message in a bottle- installatie ontstond tijdens een intensieve uitwisseling via digitale kanalen. Uit Namibië, Australië, Peru, Spanje, Italië en Nederland stuurden ze zaden, plantjes, aarde, botten en as. De verzameling representeert ons wereldwijde ecologische DNA. Lang geleden lagen onze continenten nog tegen elkaar aan. Onze grond, planten en voorouders delen een gelijkaardige en toch zeer verschillend DNA. Onze continenten blijven verbonden door de oceanen en de lucht, die de mondiale gevolgen van ons bestaan delen. Om het leefbaar te houden is een kruisbestuiving noodzakelijk. |
Cross Pollination
Six artists from 4 different continents bring their ideas together in this installation. The six women know each other from their international nomadic artist's existence, which suddenly came to a halt due to the corona pandemic. Encounters and exchanges are an important source for transcending a low tide situation. The idea for a ‘message in a bottle’ project originated from an intensive exchange via digital channels. They sent seeds, plants, soil, bones and ashes from Namibia, Australia, Peru, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, to represent a small collection of our worldwide ecological DNA. Long ago, the continents of the six women were originally linked together and our soil, plants and ancestors share a similar yet very different DNA. Our continents remain connected by the oceans and the air, which share the global consequences of our existence. Cross-pollination is necessary to keep it liveable. |
Imke Rust, Namibia | Germany
Materials: Magnolia leaf, Omumborngbonga Seeds, hair, Devil’s Thorn Fruit, Butternut seeds, Camelthorn Thorns, soil, spray paint, string, wire and acetate.
Over the past months the world has changed dramatically. Everybody had to adapt to a changed reality of lock-downs, closed borders and isolation. Life turned more digital and virtual, but at the same time many people became sensitive to essential needs and self-sustaining practices, remembering old, traditional ways of life.
This crisis has forced us to reconsider what is essential and important to us and find alternative ways of being.
Based on the idea of communicating through messages in a bottle, I am offering messages about the essence of life. They are preserved and sealed in isolation of the bottle and can travel safely through the oceans of the world. Together with the bottles of my fellow artists they form a database of knowledge, beauty and a symbolic starter-pack for a new future.
I am interested in the connection between the physical and non-physical world. In my art I explore the relationships between myth and reality, in order to create meaning.
Therefore, my messages take the form of physical, mythical and soul essences. Three types of Namibian seeds (representing ancestors and beginnings, beauty & pain and nourishment); fertile ground from my home country Namibia, and soil from my current home in Germany; my hair, as an essence of myself; huge white thorns of the Camelthorn tree, as an essence of protection and a decayed leaf as a thought about death.
Materials: Magnolia leaf, Omumborngbonga Seeds, hair, Devil’s Thorn Fruit, Butternut seeds, Camelthorn Thorns, soil, spray paint, string, wire and acetate.
Over the past months the world has changed dramatically. Everybody had to adapt to a changed reality of lock-downs, closed borders and isolation. Life turned more digital and virtual, but at the same time many people became sensitive to essential needs and self-sustaining practices, remembering old, traditional ways of life.
This crisis has forced us to reconsider what is essential and important to us and find alternative ways of being.
Based on the idea of communicating through messages in a bottle, I am offering messages about the essence of life. They are preserved and sealed in isolation of the bottle and can travel safely through the oceans of the world. Together with the bottles of my fellow artists they form a database of knowledge, beauty and a symbolic starter-pack for a new future.
I am interested in the connection between the physical and non-physical world. In my art I explore the relationships between myth and reality, in order to create meaning.
Therefore, my messages take the form of physical, mythical and soul essences. Three types of Namibian seeds (representing ancestors and beginnings, beauty & pain and nourishment); fertile ground from my home country Namibia, and soil from my current home in Germany; my hair, as an essence of myself; huge white thorns of the Camelthorn tree, as an essence of protection and a decayed leaf as a thought about death.
Elena Redaelli, Italy | Norway
Materials: handmade paper, linden seeds, roots, stones
My collection of fictional species inquiries into the relation between humans and non-human beings in the wonderful system of correspondence that is our environment.
The spreading of an uncontrollable, deadly disease should remind us of our ephemeral nature and moreover make us aware of our deep porosity and the co-dependency that ties us to animals, microscopic particles, objects and other beings.
As an artist, I have the power (if anything else) to try out possible futures without the need for my inventions to be productive or useful.
My work presents five species that escape identification. The bottles contain hybrids between natural and human parts and agency. They combine seeds from different countries, vegetable roots, recycled fibres, human hair, teeth, skin, tears. These fictional beings are desiring trans-species bodies that wish to grow and thrive.
Within my work I want to challenge the conceptual possibilities of a generative collaboration between human and nature. My work ideally crosses the borders of countries, bodies, species, time and space towards new encounters.
Materials: handmade paper, linden seeds, roots, stones
My collection of fictional species inquiries into the relation between humans and non-human beings in the wonderful system of correspondence that is our environment.
The spreading of an uncontrollable, deadly disease should remind us of our ephemeral nature and moreover make us aware of our deep porosity and the co-dependency that ties us to animals, microscopic particles, objects and other beings.
As an artist, I have the power (if anything else) to try out possible futures without the need for my inventions to be productive or useful.
My work presents five species that escape identification. The bottles contain hybrids between natural and human parts and agency. They combine seeds from different countries, vegetable roots, recycled fibres, human hair, teeth, skin, tears. These fictional beings are desiring trans-species bodies that wish to grow and thrive.
Within my work I want to challenge the conceptual possibilities of a generative collaboration between human and nature. My work ideally crosses the borders of countries, bodies, species, time and space towards new encounters.
Karin van der Molen, Netherlands
Materials: forgotten vegetables, ginkgo biloba seeds, clay.
I must admit that the 3 months confinement to home caused by the corona pandemic made our global life situation all the more urgent. Being at home and getting to know every square meter of my environment as never before, underlined the feeling that every step counts. I do not pretend to present this as a solution, but I decided to focus on ‘forgotten’ vegetables for our installation - as my art usually reflects my connection to the environment. So called forgotten veggies are the seeds and plants we have fed ourselves on for many centuries. They are easy to grow and adapted to the land. Growing your own food is essential, I think, to grasp something about the essence of our life on earth. Lavas, horseradish, cardoon, parsnip, but I also added a jar of ginko seeds. Of course the ginko biloba is not native to The Netherlands, but the tree is seen as a living fossil, that is a prehistoric transition between the needle-tree to the deciduous tree. Originated from China it was brought to Europe in the 18th century, it grows really well here. But where the Asian people withstand the smell and collect the nuts that come from the ginko trees in autumn, the stench of the fallen nuts leads to the removal of hundreds of big ginko trees here. Nature and human culture depend on each other. What is a smelling promise in one culture is stench to the other. For nature’s and our own survival we will have to examine our culture-nature relation without reservation.
A third input for this installation is the imprint of my hands in clay. It is with our hands that we express ourselves in relation to nature. It is me that develops through making art.
Materials: forgotten vegetables, ginkgo biloba seeds, clay.
I must admit that the 3 months confinement to home caused by the corona pandemic made our global life situation all the more urgent. Being at home and getting to know every square meter of my environment as never before, underlined the feeling that every step counts. I do not pretend to present this as a solution, but I decided to focus on ‘forgotten’ vegetables for our installation - as my art usually reflects my connection to the environment. So called forgotten veggies are the seeds and plants we have fed ourselves on for many centuries. They are easy to grow and adapted to the land. Growing your own food is essential, I think, to grasp something about the essence of our life on earth. Lavas, horseradish, cardoon, parsnip, but I also added a jar of ginko seeds. Of course the ginko biloba is not native to The Netherlands, but the tree is seen as a living fossil, that is a prehistoric transition between the needle-tree to the deciduous tree. Originated from China it was brought to Europe in the 18th century, it grows really well here. But where the Asian people withstand the smell and collect the nuts that come from the ginko trees in autumn, the stench of the fallen nuts leads to the removal of hundreds of big ginko trees here. Nature and human culture depend on each other. What is a smelling promise in one culture is stench to the other. For nature’s and our own survival we will have to examine our culture-nature relation without reservation.
A third input for this installation is the imprint of my hands in clay. It is with our hands that we express ourselves in relation to nature. It is me that develops through making art.
Lucia Loren, Spain
Materials: bowl of wax & seeds from Stipa Penata; wool & sticky seeds; my hair & flying seeds ; red earth & salt rock; burned wood & firing root; corn fibre; firing root; earthen bowls; seaweed paper; lichen; nearby forest & grassland seeds.
We are part of a whole. Interdependent beings that exist thanks to the network of interconnections that makes life possible. Human beings, as part of this great system, are also interconnected with the rest of existence. But we must begin to be responsible in the type of interactions that we generate, because if they are not healthy and respectful, overwhelming realities will be imposed such as the one that COVID 19 has shown us.
We need to link ourselves with new images that are built on the premises of an ethic of care and respect in our relationships with the rest of the planet.
My proposal for Cross-pollination is to connect various fragments of revealing landscapes and significant elements of my personal biography, which intend to spin a narrative about this necessary Culture of care based on the collective and everyday imaginary.
Rooting roots that open the way, coloured earth bowls that host, burnt wood that preserves, corn fibres that protect, seeds that fly, seeds that adhere to travel, algae paper to capture solar energy, lichen to generate oxygen in the earth, warming wool, rock of salt for minerals, own hair to cover, or a bowl of wax to protect my nipple while breastfeeding.
All these elements make up a part of my ecological niche, that relational sphere in which life is possible. A network of elements that are constantly transforming and mutating in a cyclical movement of interactions.
Blurring that barrier imposed between the concepts of natural and cultural, which has been established as a mantra by various currents of thought, and which has been a way of breaking not only with the landscape, but with what we really are and need. We are nature, our body is nature and we are part of this web of life.
Materials: bowl of wax & seeds from Stipa Penata; wool & sticky seeds; my hair & flying seeds ; red earth & salt rock; burned wood & firing root; corn fibre; firing root; earthen bowls; seaweed paper; lichen; nearby forest & grassland seeds.
We are part of a whole. Interdependent beings that exist thanks to the network of interconnections that makes life possible. Human beings, as part of this great system, are also interconnected with the rest of existence. But we must begin to be responsible in the type of interactions that we generate, because if they are not healthy and respectful, overwhelming realities will be imposed such as the one that COVID 19 has shown us.
We need to link ourselves with new images that are built on the premises of an ethic of care and respect in our relationships with the rest of the planet.
My proposal for Cross-pollination is to connect various fragments of revealing landscapes and significant elements of my personal biography, which intend to spin a narrative about this necessary Culture of care based on the collective and everyday imaginary.
Rooting roots that open the way, coloured earth bowls that host, burnt wood that preserves, corn fibres that protect, seeds that fly, seeds that adhere to travel, algae paper to capture solar energy, lichen to generate oxygen in the earth, warming wool, rock of salt for minerals, own hair to cover, or a bowl of wax to protect my nipple while breastfeeding.
All these elements make up a part of my ecological niche, that relational sphere in which life is possible. A network of elements that are constantly transforming and mutating in a cyclical movement of interactions.
Blurring that barrier imposed between the concepts of natural and cultural, which has been established as a mantra by various currents of thought, and which has been a way of breaking not only with the landscape, but with what we really are and need. We are nature, our body is nature and we are part of this web of life.
Karen Macher, Peru | Italy
Materials: potatoes, glue skin prints, roots
Bottle 1: Potato
A potato is easy to grow. It only requires to put half of it inside water for some days, and it will begin to sprout easily.
I come from Peru, the land of potatoes. Over 3500 different kinds grow here. Potatoes are well known for being a very complete source of nourishment. This proposal is related to my roots as Peruvian. By sending a local seed that will travel to this exhibition and nurture itself from a different environment and gives nourishment at the same time, since it is not possible at this moment to travel myself. By spreading its roots in local waters from the place it will be sent, it works as an attempt of exchange of experiences, and that is also capable of growing new potatoes to continue with the chain of feeding whatever destiny comes next.
Bottle 2: Skin
The skin carries a lot of information about the person. It has not only DNA, but also an emotional ephemeral and changing pattern which speaks of tolerance, adaptability, faith, hope. As a container and protector of our inner self, it is what confronts us with the world, the first thing that other people can touch and see of us at first glance.
Sending my skin in a bottle, is a metaphor of sending part of me that will symbolically represent my presence in another place where I cannot be. We normally shed skin, we go through a sloughing process like snakes, but we don´t notice, and all the dead tissue is like a diary of our past experiences. So part of my history, my soul will be literally there, talking silently through the patterns of my skin.
Materials: potatoes, glue skin prints, roots
Bottle 1: Potato
A potato is easy to grow. It only requires to put half of it inside water for some days, and it will begin to sprout easily.
I come from Peru, the land of potatoes. Over 3500 different kinds grow here. Potatoes are well known for being a very complete source of nourishment. This proposal is related to my roots as Peruvian. By sending a local seed that will travel to this exhibition and nurture itself from a different environment and gives nourishment at the same time, since it is not possible at this moment to travel myself. By spreading its roots in local waters from the place it will be sent, it works as an attempt of exchange of experiences, and that is also capable of growing new potatoes to continue with the chain of feeding whatever destiny comes next.
Bottle 2: Skin
The skin carries a lot of information about the person. It has not only DNA, but also an emotional ephemeral and changing pattern which speaks of tolerance, adaptability, faith, hope. As a container and protector of our inner self, it is what confronts us with the world, the first thing that other people can touch and see of us at first glance.
Sending my skin in a bottle, is a metaphor of sending part of me that will symbolically represent my presence in another place where I cannot be. We normally shed skin, we go through a sloughing process like snakes, but we don´t notice, and all the dead tissue is like a diary of our past experiences. So part of my history, my soul will be literally there, talking silently through the patterns of my skin.
Sally Kidall, Australia | UK
Materials: seed pods, burnt bones, bamboo, ash, sand, leaves
Passing through the devastated burnt out landscapes of our Australian forests, with charred tree trunk remnants, scorched soils, animal corpses, vestiges of building debris, that were homes just a few months ago, is overwhelming. We feel a great sense of loss, grief, fear and trauma as slowly we start to comprehend and digest the traumatic community experiences and the environmental impacts of our devastating summer bush fires 2019-2020. It is estimated that we have lost over 11 million hectares of our 125 million hectares of forest, around 10% of our forests. And vast numbers of our native animals have perished, some already endangered species.
Australia contains about 3% of the world's forests, the seventh largest forested area in the world. Our forests are subject to increasing pressures from climatic changes with longer droughts, extreme storms, invasive weeds, pests and disease, poor fire management, urban development, mining and poor agricultural practices. And a total lack of respect for the invaluable advice on land/bush management from our indigenous Australians who have cared for this ancient continent for 60 million years pre European settlement. Our government has been very slow to acknowledge the human contribution to climate change with our powerful coal industry as one of our main exports.
Many communities remain homeless during our winter living in makeshift tents on their land; with out insurance they have lost everything...
My bottles reflect on the evolving symptoms of fear & dispossession as humanity struggles within our planets volatile trajectory.
Materials: seed pods, burnt bones, bamboo, ash, sand, leaves
Passing through the devastated burnt out landscapes of our Australian forests, with charred tree trunk remnants, scorched soils, animal corpses, vestiges of building debris, that were homes just a few months ago, is overwhelming. We feel a great sense of loss, grief, fear and trauma as slowly we start to comprehend and digest the traumatic community experiences and the environmental impacts of our devastating summer bush fires 2019-2020. It is estimated that we have lost over 11 million hectares of our 125 million hectares of forest, around 10% of our forests. And vast numbers of our native animals have perished, some already endangered species.
Australia contains about 3% of the world's forests, the seventh largest forested area in the world. Our forests are subject to increasing pressures from climatic changes with longer droughts, extreme storms, invasive weeds, pests and disease, poor fire management, urban development, mining and poor agricultural practices. And a total lack of respect for the invaluable advice on land/bush management from our indigenous Australians who have cared for this ancient continent for 60 million years pre European settlement. Our government has been very slow to acknowledge the human contribution to climate change with our powerful coal industry as one of our main exports.
Many communities remain homeless during our winter living in makeshift tents on their land; with out insurance they have lost everything...
My bottles reflect on the evolving symptoms of fear & dispossession as humanity struggles within our planets volatile trajectory.
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