caribbean thoughts

Collecting and researching older works for the photographer, who is working in my studio for the upcoming catalogue…I found this drawing “Ocean of Mediocraty”, 1996…in which I already try to cope and struggle with my desire to go back to my island of birth! The drawing (ca. 200x150cm) is made in charcoal and painted clay with glue.

“Van Niemand voor Niemand”(met een divi divi boom en een lange bal in de diepte)                                                              “From nobody for nobody”(with a divi divi tree and a long ball/passing into the depth)

No title; 1994; charcoal on paper; 185x150cm

“pissed off bananatree”; 1996; charcoal on paper; 70x100cm

“Autonomous in your trousers”; 2007; acrylic and ink on paper; ca. 180x150cm

NORMALTAIRISM

For the exhibition “NIET NORMAAL”(www.nietnormaal.nl) I am busy at the moment with my Team Normalitairism on the location of the Beurs of Berlage. In collaboration with ‘Niet Normaal’ and the foundation SKOR (www.skor.nl) I am working every day with my team, consisting of many students and professionals and people from organisations, considered to be ‘not normal’ by our pretty much narrow minded global standard vision, on a work in process…most probably progress!

Teamdiscussion

I introduced the term NORMALITAIRISM to reflect the apparently compulsory character of being or acting ‘normal’. In my view, all human behaviour is artificial; our aim in life is to try to identify our position in the world. “Why the blody hell are we here and what is the sense of it…?!”  The only universal events are birth and death. What happens between those two certain points, in other words, how people live their life, is determined by culture. NORMALITAIRISM is an ongoing workshop that will continue for three months of the ‘Niet Normaal'(Not Normal) exhibition. I wanted to produce a number of sculptures using different materials to represent the three foundations of these thoughts, namely birth, culture and death, to serve as a starting point. However I choose more or less for this base a platform, stage with a pulpit from a actual church built up on stairs more than 6 metres high. Annother christian pulpit is on the groundfloor. Religion supports the idea of culture ‘telling’ us how to live….etc. On the pulpit is a little animationstudio and everybody is invited to add drawings, painting and texts to create a sequance/animationmovie, which will take three months. On the base is a speakerscorner with a microphone in which everybody is invited to preach as well. Every two minutes from the loudspeakers one hears the recorded speeches, comments on what’s normal or not, quotes, shouting, singing….of the audience.

The Team Normalitairism works almost every day, in which clients from several Amsterdam care institutions participate beside of students of the Amsterdam School of Arts (AHK), the artacademy of Enschede (AKI) and individual enthusiastic artists with an extra interest and believe in action, intervention and being overthere. Also former students from the IBB (www.institutobuenabista.com) from my island of birth, Curacao are acting in this project.

A group of girls from the city of The Hague who will participate more frequently during the process, as a beginning of a site project referring to my big overview exhibition the next year in GEMAK and GEM in The Hague. A girl walks down the stairs after drawing on the animation and will let the next one to continue the sequence.

GESLACHTOFFER

girlpower stolen!

This drawing was stolen yesterday from my installation at Kiosk, Gent Belgium. So if you see this drawing somewhere, get the thief and I will award you with a big price!!

Well, to comfort myself I listened to some music and drew more girlpower

‘Joseph’s 69th.’, 2009