Today just two pictures of small paintings that I have produced a couple of months ago. They were shown at my gallery del Tasso in bergamo , Italy. (www.galleriadeltasso.it) And not sold, can you imagine….?!

“Rotary Bingo”, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 50×70 cm

“The Winners #111”, acrylic on canvas, 50×70 cm

Two images of two drawings I produced yesterday. The ‘ Mijn ijskast is uw ijskast’ (my fridge is your fridge) comes from a conversation during one of  the dinners with our guests for the I.B.B.  I realized that moment that me and my wife Nancy, we were so many times host/ess. That’s a beautiful thing to cook and eat with friends, colleagues, students and offer them hospitality. We enjoy this intense social life. At this moment, beside our guests in the ‘artist in residence’ program Bart Lodewijks and Daniëlle van Zuijlen, we have our first guest for the International Project Space; Honoré d’O from Belgium. I am literally honored to have these special people overhere on our Rock Korsou (Curaçao).Daniëlle and Bart have made a start in our studio spaces and presented themselves to our pupils and taught the other day in the ‘Scharloo’  neighbourhood as well, which is the hood of our new grand accommodation. (www.institutobuenabista.com) They got the pupils investigate the new building, garden and neighbourhood by digital camera(will be continued).

The honorable Honoré has arrived this week and found directly his way on the island. The master of visual poetic gesture inhales as always curious and very amazed the new situation: ‘flavour Korsou’

“Mijn ijskast is uw ijskast”, 2007, acrylic on paper, 50×70 cm

 

“The King”, 2007, acrylic on paper, 50×70 cm

An interview last week at the programm ‘Panorama’ from miss Phyllis Hernandez at radio Hooyer. She is a person with a sincere interest in what we did, do and will do on the island.On the rightside we’ll see Bart Lodewijks, the artist from Hoorn (NL) who is together with Daniëlle van Zuylen our first artists in residence (www.mariakapel.nl) . They are becoming acclimatized on Curaçao and will during their three months stay teach our pupils and develop new works themselves.In the middle is Nancy Hoffmann, our dear director and art historian. On the left
Tirzo Martha, my colleague and comrade.

The drawing tells probably a little bit of what I would have said in such an interview, but says more about my shout and position towards the elitary public.

 

I am back on the island, home. My experiences in the Netherlands were mainly positive: a lecture at the Rietveld academy, a meeting with the director of the Rietveld talking about collaborations with our institute here, Art Rotterdam where my Dutch gallery www.metis-nl.com  was presenting some drawings of me, talking with some representatives of funds which support us, an ArteSwa meeting with
Edwin Jacobs in the city of Tilburg where we will act this year, etc etc.

However the main goal was the installation of the works we had prepared in the ArteSwa workshop at the Kollegio Monseigneur Henriquez te Fuik  in the museum Villa Zebra (www.villazebra.nl). A very intense experience with very nice people. Under here a short pictural summary of the installation.

 

A little confusion with the suitcase full of flat cardboard pieces from the kids of Fuik

“How is it to be your mother?”

Building and growing out of the suitcase……The mother as an tree, with big and many arms, the mother as a house, the base and captain of the Curacao family! Did you know that Curacao has a female president? It never happened in the Netherlands, so far…

Travelling…

At this moment I am travelling so I am not able to give much attention to this blog! However there’s enough to write about. Of course a drawing can say a thousant words…

Yu di schlachtoffer

“Yu di schlachtoffer” ( something like “Child Victim”)  is my observation regarding the artificial try of certain people on this island (and some Antillians in Holland as well) to overtax oneself seeking for identity. They talk about “afro this” and “makamba (whiteman) that”……”succesfull Antillians”…….. And all in the Name of Themselves and on the back of the normal People….. Happily or tragiccaly most people don’t give a damm.

I.B.B. is a place with a distinctive character….. 

Harvey Davelaar, one of our pupils responded on this blog yesterday (see his reaction underneath my first contribution) and asked for some more I.B.B. atmosphere!! www.institutobuenabista.com

He is right and let’s show some pictures of these diligent young talents: 

First we see Luigino Brandao drawing on an assignment where we go to certain spots on the island, chosen by the students, with which they have a certain connection. This time we went to a church in the quarter ‘ Groot Kwartier’, chosen by Josette James. They got 10 minutes to draw, make notes, investigate (I say all the time, we go to the murder scene, use your eyes!) and then we go back to the institute to process these observations on a large scale and with their imagination. 

 

 Then we have two pictures of a new assignment in which we work together with the whole group. It’s an ArteSwa project (www.arteswa.com). We’ll preparing an ArteSwa vehicle which will be multifunctional. On the one hand it should be an ‘eye catcher’ for us, when we drive on the island to do workshops. On the other hand, we are able to go to the people, schools, site specific places, in stead of so often experienced difficulties with transporting groups to ‘our spot’. So, our pupils have to sketch a basis frame for this vehicle which should be possible to operate as a mobile ArteSwa location and change in it’s outlook from time(workshop) to time(workshop). The first outlook will be set with the theme ‘mother’/’mama’. About this project I wrote already a piece (Fuik-Villa Zebra). 

 

The ‘Mother’ subject, one can see already in the sketch and beautiful drawing of Harvey Davelaar. 

And after most of the courses we find time for relaxation. The backround is made by residents of the psychiatry clinic Capriles, which is the place where we have our beautiful temporary accommodation.

Feel secure Feel secure, “voel je zeker”  in Dutch and in papiamentu (the creole language one speaks on Curaçao) “sinti bo sigur”! The slogan which an insurance company is using here on Curaçao. A feeling or state of mind that everybody can identificate with, that’s clear. However the meaning of ‘secure’ really is very relative of course. I have used their poster literal in a recent drawing. In  a situation at the barber where three man with ‘hair in the face’ are waiting for a nice treatment by a tattooed barber. Is he like most  male barbers gay? Well, the happy family ‘feel secure’ poster fills up the background and now I stop talking, because words endanger, as so often, this particular situation. So I let you guys look and discover, think, interpretate and feel secure or scroll down to another image.   

 

Here we have an old sculpture of mine: “Gullit”, 1994, clay, iron and birch tree, ca.120x40x110 cm. It has been shown in several places, like the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in ’94 and at the Venice Biennale 1995. Lots of youngsters don’t know Ruud Gullit as this famous dreadlock soccer player he was before in the early nineties (AC Milano). Actually more often when I show this picture I hear the name Edgar Davids dropping. And now I read that this soccer player Davids, who I always admired as ‘this technical pit bull’ on the pitch, is going to play again and finish his career at Ajax Amsterdam. That brings me to the third picture of today:
Ajax hooligans/ supporters are associated with and want to be called (super) Jews. I have worked on a sketch design for a sculpture in their stadium ‘Arena’ in Amsterdam (about that assignment later on more), and underneath we find a white Rasta Jewish hooligan drawing, which is called:

“West (bank) Coast”, 2004, charcoal on paper, 70×90 cm.