I HAVE NOTHING TO SELL

On February 1, 2019 I was interviewed by Peter Nijenhuis for his blog De Wereld Werkt in Arnhem. Our conversation about drawing in general and more specifically the drawings I made as a result of my residency in Svalbard was published on his blog under the title I HAVE NOTHING TO SELL.

Many thanks to: Peter Nijenhuis and Chris Kennedy
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HÖLL

 

In preparation for my stay in Galleri Svalbard I visited the depots of the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam where they have the first (and second) edition of the book The true and perfect description of three voyages so strange and woonderfull, that the like hath neuer been heard of before: done and performed three yeares, one after the other, by the ships of Holland and Zeland, on the north sides of Norway, Muscouia, and Tartaria, towardsthe kingdomes of Cathaia & China by Gerrit de Veer. I later found out there is a Latin translation from 1598 in the library of Galleri Svalbard. The story is an account of Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerck’s ill-fated expedition of 1596, which saw its 17 members stranded on Nova Zembla for ten months during the polar winter. Before they stranded on Nova Zembla Barents discovered Bear Island and Spitsbergen by accident.

 

1-4 June
Ink, pencil, ballpoint, watercolour, acrylic paint and gouache on paper – 88,5 x 138 cm – 2018
21-22 June
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 71 x 103 cm- 2018
15 August
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 71,5 x 108,5 cm – 2018
26 August
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 71 x 112 cm – 2018
28 August
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 71 x 96 cm – 2018
15 September
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 55 x 90 cm – 2020
17 September
Ink, pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint and gouache on paper – 85 x 109,5 cm – 2018
25 September
Ink, pencil, watercolour, gouache and acrylic paint on paper – 70 x 96 cm – 2018
25 October
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 79,5 x 140 cm – 2018
7 / 9 December
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 60 x 88,5 cm – 2018
12 February
Inkt, potlood, waterverf, acryl and gouache op papier – 60 x 88,5 cm – 2018
29 May
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 60 x 88,5 cm – 2018
30 May
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 60 x 88,5 cm – 2018
12 & 13 June
Ink, pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint, gouache and collage on paper – 140 x 251 cm – 2019
17 June
Ink, pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint, gouache and collage on paper – 83 x 143 cm – 2019
28 & 29 June
Ink, pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint and gouache on paper – 117 x 244 cm – 2018
1 July
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 90 x 143 cm – 2020
21 July
Ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 95,8 x 145,5 cm – 2019
28 July
Ink, pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint and gouache on paper – 114,6 x 244 cm – 2020
16 / 20 August
Ink, pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint and gouache on paper – 140 x 285 cm – 2020
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Residency at Galleri Svalbard in Spitsbergen (first week)

 

Between July 17 and August 15 2018 I did a residency in Galleri Svalbard in Spitsbergen related to a long-running project I’m working on. Starting point for the project is an installation that I made in 2013, The Hyperborean Garden. The idea was to go deeper into themes that were raised in that particular work. Partly due to the many newsletters I got from Arctic Centre from the University of Groningen, from Artica Svalbard and the Svalbard Science Forum my focus gradually shifted from the original idea, the role of Arctic and Antarctic (boreal) myths in the world of the far right towards the effects of human behavior on the ecosystem, in this case that of the North.

I particularly liked Michel Serres reflections on the relation between nature and culture and the way he analyzes the origins of the world’s contemporary environmental problems. He does so through the proposition that our cleanliness is our dirt by which he means that our desire to possess the world by ‘cleaning’ or claiming it for ourselves and then throwing the consequent dirt and detritus beyond the bounds of what we deem ‘propre’ has brought about the ruination of ourselves and our world*.

* Sacred Dirt by Susan Stewart, a review of Michael Serres book Malfeasance in Los Angeles Review of Books

Many thanks to: Jan Martin Berg, Stephan Linden en Daria Khelsengreen (Galleri Svalbard), Maarten Loonen (Universitair hoofddocent Arctische Ecologie en manager Nederlands Arctisch Station in Spitsbergen), Rudolf Denkmann (Alfred Wegener Institute, Ny-Ålesund) and CBK Rotterdam for their financial support (O & O bijdrage)
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Residency at Galleri Svalbard in Spitsbergen (second week)

 

In the second week of my stay in Svalbard I went on visits to the Russian settlements of Barentsburg and Pyramiden.

Barentsburg is the second-largest settlement on Svalbard situated on the Grønfjord (part of Isfjorden) with about 450 inhabitants, almost entirely Russians and Ukrainians. Barentsburg is the only remaining Russian permanent settlement on Svalbard. Svalbard is under full Norwegian sovereignty, but according to a 1920 treaty all signatory countries (40 in total) are granted non-discriminatory rights to fishing, hunting and exploring mineral resources. For Russia that means coal mining. Barentsburg started as a Dutch mining town in the 1920s. In 1932 the Rotterdam based Dutch Spitsbergen Company (Nespico) sold their concession to the Soviet Union due to financial troubles. Since then coal mining is conducted by the Soviet company Arktikugol . Pyramiden was a Russian settlement and coal-mining community situated on the Billefjorden which is also part of Isfjorden. Founded by Sweden in 1910 and sold to the Soviet Union in 1927, Pyramiden was closed in 1998 and has since remained largely abandoned with most of its infrastructure and buildings still in place.
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Studies for Scatmobile

 

Six drawings I made in my studio in Rotterdam and at Galleri Svalbard in Spitsbergen in 2017 and 2018 for what could be part of an installation.
Ink, pencil and watercolor on paper – various sizes – 2017-2018
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My stay at the Dutch Polar Station in Ny-Ålesund in Spitsbergen (third week)

 

Ny-Ålesund is a research town in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula (Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned and operated by Kings Bay AS, who provide facilities for permanent research institutes from ten countries. Ny-Ålesund has an all-year permanent population of 30 to 35, with the summer population reaching 120. Its facilities include Ny-Ålesund Airport, a Mine Museum, as well as fifteen permanent research stations by countries such as, Norway, Germany, France, England, Italy, Japan, South-Korea China and Holland. It is the northernmost functional civilian settlement in the world.

The Dutch Arctic Center of the University of Groningen uses a couple of small buildings in Ny-Alesund as polar station. There they are studying barnacle geese and their ecology. The study in Kongsfjorden started in 1990 and is continuing till today. Dr. Maarten Loonen is keeping a personal log of this study.

I was invited by Maarten Loonen for a stay of 8 days in Ny-Ålesund as part of his team, a great experience for which I’m very thankful.
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Residency at Galleri Svalbard in Spitsbergen (fourth week)

 

After returning from Ny-Ålesund I stayed in Galleri Svalbard one more week. From there I made one more trip in the evening to Skansbukta and Nordenskiöldbreen (Nordenskiöld Glacier). Other than that I worked some more on small drawings and spend time in Galleri Svalbard’s fantastic library.


 
Library Photo 1 & 2: Armin Elbers.
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