Garage, Rotterdam

Kunsthal, Rotterdam

Stedelijk, Amsterdam

Stedelijk, Schiedam

1. comments from CA2: I research development inside and outside the work field. I still have to connect these developments from outside the work field more to my own work (see also ability to grow and change)

2. actions/experiences/insights:
For the project ‘2039’ I connected it to the course ‘climate crisis’ I was following simultaneously at EUC. Academic sources, such as Donna Haraway with ‘Staying with the Trouble’ and Anna Tsing ‘Mushrooms at the end of the world’ were an inspiration for showing the need for different ways of storytelling, and different perspective on the relationship between humans and nature. I used different mediums to help in telling stories about this relation in different ways: a series of analogue photographs, a collection of mushrooms, and ceramic and 3d printed sculptures. All these different things I put together in a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ on hotglue, which on itself can also be seen as a new way of storytelling. For more design-based research I looked into the work by Lizan Freijsen, I had seen some of her carpet and thought it was very interesting how she used stains and growing bacteria as an inspiration for the shapes/colors of her carpets

I have become part of two groups within WdKA: SPIN and the Red Floor Gallery. Both consist of students from different majors/practices. This way I get in contact with people who approach projects from different angles than I do, there are students from graphic design, fine arts, product design, photography and some others.

I also learned to reach out more to people although it might be scary. They can teach you and tell you about their experiences, they can give feedback on projects you are working on and it is just nice in general to have inspiring conversations with nice people/artists. Now a lot of those people I talk to are fellow students and teacher, but after school I have to find more people myself, so it is good I am trying that out more now and create some connections outside of school. It also taught me that if they are not interested in talking to or working with you, they will (kindly) say no, and that is okay. If they say yes, they want to make time for you, so see it as a win-win. So, I’ve been talking to some people outside of the academy that could give me insight into various professional context. I spoke with two graduate students from illustration Isa Gaastra and Laura Kleinmans. They helped with giving feedback on projects I was doing and had some tips for finding an internship. Laura for example works a lot with ceramics, which is something I am looking into for an internship.

At uni I just did a course on understanding contemporary art, for that we had multiple seminars by people from the art world, for example The Otolith Group, Reinaart Vanhoe, Manuela Klerkx and we also got an online tour through Melly (formerly known as Witte de With). As most things we do is more academic based I also read more key literature on contemporary art (Bourdieu, Bishop, Bourriaud, Kosuth) and articles on art platforms such as Artforum, Metropolis M and Flash Art. I haven’t got the theory classes at WdKA, so it was nice to approach art from a theoretical perspective. It definitely influenced the way I look at contemporary art and cultural institutions, which I will keep in mind when making new works myself. For example, the importance of the audience in the creation of the work.

good quote in bathroom of studio of Isa and Laura