‘Never a day without lines’ is a series of exhibitions that takes place in three editions. The point of departure: ‘the drawing’ in its purest form, and with connotative aspect that is intrinsic to autonomous art. De Ketelfactory has invited three artists whose work focuses on the drawing. From early January through early July 2010, works by various visual artists will be shown in three editions. The content, ‘the story’ that the artist wants to tell, is crucial to the shape that the drawing takes and determines what material is used in it. Within the visual arts, the drawing is actually the most ‘vulnerable’ material form that an artist can employ. Here it is not possible for the artist to ‘hide’ behind an impressive and aesthetic use of material. A single line must give shape to a mental picture. The drawing develops, consciously or unconsciously, from an idea or an inner world and then crystallizes on a support, such as paper, canvas or a wall.
Kinke Kooi has invited Olphaert den Otter and Ewoud van Rijn to participate in an exhibition based on the notion of alchemy. Each of the artists works on the basis of a personal visual language; but in their archetypal images of decay, connection, transformation and the cyclical, they discover a unique affinity with each other.
Kinke Kooi
‘I realize that I like to swim against the current,’ says Kinke Kooi in an interview with Mirjam Westen. ‘It has nothing to do with recalcitrance, but rather with the idea that feeling resistance lends support. People often talk about the importance of climbing the social ladder. Of needing to make one’s mark, to be autonomous, stand out and rise up, higher and higher, to the top. No one talks about what it’s like to head in the other direction. Falling, to the very bottom of the pile, into the abyss—that’s also an option. That idea inspires me to create cavities in which you can live, hide and become absorbed in a greater whole.’
At De Ketelfactory Kinke Kooi is presenting a series of drawings that she compiles into a large spatial installation.(quote from: ‘Imagine a world without status’. In: Kinke Kooi, Museum van Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, 2009)
Olphaert den Otter
At first sight the work ‘Earth’ by Olphaert den Otter brings to mind the still lifes of the Baroque period, with their vanitas symbols such as skulls, bones and hourglasses. Such symbolism was intended to remind the viewer of the vanity of a fleeting earthly existence. In our present-day society we actually only find these symbols in popular culture (e.g. pirate films, or clothing related to music genres such as rock, punk and heavy metal) and occasionally as traditional military symbols. The meaning of death has changed over the past centuries, having become an end to be feared, banished from our sight and used merely for the sake of its shocking effect. Olphaert den Otter is producing a monumental wall drawing as a ‘work in progress’: he will continue to work on it throughout the entire exhibition period. This process will be recorded as an animation on DVD.
Ewoud van Rijn
Ewoud van Rijn regards the visual space of his detailed, often large-scale drawings as imaginary spaces situated within, beyond, adjacent and on top of day-to-day reality. The continually recurring discussion about the end of art and the death of painting is assimilated by him into a metaphor on the perpetual cycle of death and resurrection. At De Ketelfactory he is showing recent work based in part on a study of ‘lost’ cultures, such as the Northern European ‘neo-pagan cults’, that have been revived and given a new place in history. Ewoud van Rijn’s installation consists of three monumental wall drawings and an object.
distillation ‘3 is a magic number’
Date: 28 February 2010
In collaboration with: Marco Pasi, Stephen Snelders and Annine van der Meer
Marco Pasi about Aleister Crowley
Marco Pasi speaks on the cultural implications of recently rediscovered paintings by English artist, writer and mountaineer Aleister Crowley. In 2008 he created an exhibition of Crowley’s work in the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Philosopher Marco Pasi is affiliated to “Leerstoelgroep Geschiedenis van de Hermetische Filosofie en Verwante Stromingen”, University of Amsterdam. Ewoud van Rijn has invited him to speak.
Stephen Snelders about ‘Earth‘, alchemy and Edgar Allan Poe
Stephen Snelders speaks on ‘Earth’, a painting by Olphaert den Otter, in which he refers to alchemy and the work of Edgar Allan Poe. In his lecture he focusses on the meaning of concepts such as death, the ‘black work’ and the live matter. Stephen Snelders is a scientific researcher and university tutor at the Metamedics department of the VU Medical Centre in Amsterdam. He has been invited to speak by Olphaert den Otter.
Annine van der Meer about Sophia and the divine feminine
Annine van der Meer is a religious historic and a theologist. She promoted in 1989 with Professor Gilles Quispel. Early on in her studies, this expert on the gnosis introduced her to Sophia, God’s wife in the gnosis. After her promotion she carried out a comparative study into Sophia and the divine female in judaism, christianity and islam. Following this period, she travelled ‘back in time’. Through historical and archeological research within all manner of cultures, she searched for traces of the hidden Mother and the lost motherland, well into prehistoric times. She was invited to speak by Kinke Kooi.
video portrait
publication (in Dutch)
Excerpts from writings by Kinke Kooi, Ewoud van Rijn and Olphaert den Otter: “Keyword: Transformation.
Kinke: It gives me such an immensely powerful feeling to make something I’m afraid or embarrassed of into a thing of beauty.
Ewoud: Only possible by going through something, fully. I was baptised; bit of water over the head, I don’t remember any of it. For me, that doesn’t count. Consciously completely immersing yourself, that counts.
Olphaert: Ugly/beautiful. Worthless/valuable. Death/life. Matter/mind. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to indicate the exact line between them. The constant flow from one into the other: I feel more and more as though there’s more truth in that dynamic than there is in separately confined compartments. Transformation is my job and therefore never far away.”
order
articles (in Dutch)
Ik haat Plato – Peter Henk Steenhuis in Trouw
Ik vul alle gaten in – Peter Henk Steenhuis in Trouw
Hij neemt de tijd bij de lurven – Peter Henk Steenhuis in Trouw
Dit ei vind ik een zelfportret – Peter Henk Steenhuis in Trouw