Exchange week 3, 4 and 5

 

Muscle
Installation 2013
T-shirt fabric, Beeswax, Linseed oil, White spirit, Rope,
MDF board, Wood glue, MDF dust, Metal table,
Golf clubs, Matte inkjet prints.

Dear Eva, Miek and Frank;

This is now day 2 after the first critique, and I can honestly say that I am pleased with the result. I don't know if the teachers went less hard on me because I am an exchange student but I hope not. The installation ended up very different from the sketches but I do not necessarily think that it is a bad thing.
The starting point of the piece is the lives of 4 'playboys' from last century. They all had two things in common; they loved women and they died a spectactular death. The photograph on the lower level of the table is of Alfonso De Portago who was a spanish race car driver killed in a crash in 1957. He was a nobleman who raced cars, bobsleighs, played polo, was a spanish diving champion etc. There is a great story or myth saying that he had a license to fly, but never bothered learning navigation so he would often get lost in the air.
Whether or not the stories about the 4 men are true, I am not that interested in. I wanted to make an installation that would show this fascination of their lives but also tell a story about macho ideals and how far removed they are from contemporary living.
I did not want to ridicule it, but not put it on a pedestal either (as in glorify). First I wanted to make only phallic symbols.
The object on top of the small table was actually meant to have been a nose from an airplane. Like this:

found photo - not my work

I just spent ages gluing it and in the end I ran out of time at the lathe so it became this strange looking 'objet d'affection'. It kind of just took of in a direction and a lot of the choices made was not planned from the beginning. The t-shirt I glazed with wax in order to make it into oilskin. It's very far from what I expected but it looks like what I wanted. This kind of hyperrealistic fabric that you always see in movies. Do you know what I am talking about? I want to say authentic but that word is so sticky and over the top, that actually, that is what I was aiming for. Abercrombie&Fitch Vintage Authentic Rugged Greasy Caveman apparal. 



I like how this - on a formal level - is a big step forward. Instead of making self-contained sculptures I am now trying to build a narrative with objects and photographs. I have the intentions to make a better use of the space later on. In this piece I feel the individual objects could be tied together more nicely - Especially the golf club is kind of on its own and could just as well be left out. The club is definitely a continuation of the sculptures made at Rietveld. It was meant to be a polo mallet but then it had this great wooden head that somehow looks like a pipe and then I couldn't get my self to cut it off.

All in all I feel like this is a big progress from what I've been doing last semester.
I am considering using text to open up for the meaning next time. Only text in this one was the tag on the t-shirt saying 'muscle'.
It needs to be a balance though, over explaining is the worst thing there is.... Or maybe I should just go all in.
This was the first of 3 critiques in sculpture class. The other classes I've been neglecting a bit, but I really need to focus on sculpture. There's a lot of unrelated homework and it's starting to bug me.

The last 3 weeks I have also seen tons of gallery shows in Chelsea and around Brooklyn. I've become pretty obsessed with the textures of surfaces. Things are going way fast and there's always something happening.
Yesterday I went and saw an opening of Rachel de Joode. It pretty much rocked my world.
There's talk about getting Urs Fischer for a guest-teacher critique. That would be freaking awesome. Being here I am exposed to so many interesting things that I could not possible put it into work. I am missing out making all the equations and only producing the end result of the inspiration process.

In other news, Pratt's main building top floor burned! It won't affect me, but it's pretty mysterious what started the fire.

In the wee bit of spare time there is, I like to surf the internet and find information about amazing people:
www.badassoftheweek.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Freuchen - There's not much information in english, but he once got caught in a snow blizzard on Greenland and dug himself a cave. He then shaped his poo into a chisel, let it freeze and used it to get out, but he was caught in the snow for too long so he got frostbites in his foot. It was amputated and he got a wooden leg instead. 

Exchange Week #2

It seems like time is moving slightly faster here than in Europe.

Still, I haven't made anything that would count as my own work. I changed the film class with a course called Robotics & Physical Computing. Not that the film class wasn't relevant to my work, the class just turned out to be more about how to show your work - the beaming, than the actual filming. With the name "Multimedia Installation" I probably should've guessed it.
Anyway I am happy about the new class, the teacher is young, talented, into it and keeps a webpage: www.ericforman.com/

In the welding class we are starting out learning oxy-fuel welding which is fun and difficult.

In the drawing class we are drawing.

In sculpture class we have a presentation due in 3 weeks. I have an idea of what I want to make, but I should probably wait spilling it out, a lot can change and I feel obliged to the idea if I put it down in writing. It is probably going to relate to Porfirio_Rubirosa, Alfonso_de_Portago and Hans-Joachim_Marseille. A kind of biographical installation loosely based on real-life myths. The documentation afterwards is gravely important.
I am kind of re-evaluating which direction I would like to take my artistic practice. Or maybe it is a clumsy wording - 'develop it' I guess. I am aiming for a complex installation with a strong narrative whereas earlier I have aimed subconciously for The Masterpiece aka one brilliant art work containing everything that I wanted to say. I looked at Roman Signer and Jean Tinguely and I thought: Wow. I want to be that concise.


I went to MoMA and I did not see 'the clock' but I fell head over heels in love with their section of Arte Povera. Also I saw a performance take place.
Yikes.
I have yet to see a performance that is not vomit inducing. I fucking hate that shit. I can not recall the name of the artist..
On the ground floor, a whole wall is used to project Guido Van Der Werve's:
"Nummer acht, everything is going to be all right". Absolutely brilliant work - and by a former Rietveld student (I think).

Guido Van Der Werve - Nummer acht, everything is going to be all right - video -  2007



Over and out.

Grimmeste mand i byen - Povl Dissing

Night Owl

I stumbled across http://theories-of.tumblr.com/ and now I can't sleep because I got so much inspiration from it. I had planned to visit MoMA tomorrow to go see Christian Marclay's 'The Clock'.



You can click the tags on the blog, I really enjoyed all the sculptures. I have ideas for maybe 10 works now, after having no aim for weeks. I want to get some speed in the process of making, and not worry so much about concept but let it work itself out. I wish I could keep this feeling of positive urgency in my body.

Andreas Schimanski - projektion

Tumor update Astrocytoma II

Scanningen viste ingen ændringer !

The scan showed no changes !

Next MRI in 12 months 


 Jeg er ikke stolt af det her, men jeg har slet ikke opdateret bloggen med det sidste scanningssvar som jeg fik i begyndelsen af December 2012. Da jeg stod og havde fået beskeden om at jeg var alvorlig syg var det første jeg gjorde at gå på internettet og lede efter information. Der var en masse frygtelige historier, og jeg oprettede den her blog med intentionen om at fortælle min historie. Nu går det godt, og jeg har ikke længere behov for at spilde min tanker og ængstelser ud. Det har fyldt så meget så længe, så at slippe for at skulle forholde mig til det har været ufattelig befrielse.
Det er 3 år siden at jeg blev opereret første gang og 2 år siden sidste operation. Der er ingen ændringer at se på den sidste MR-scanning af min hjerne. Jannick Brennum har indkaldt til næste scanning om et år i stedet for om et halvt år som det har været indtil nu. Det er et vendepunkt som giver mig håb. Tumoren som Jannick opererede ud fra min hjerne er en Astrocytoma grade II

Der bliver forhåbentlig ikke flere indlæg andet end positive scanningsvar de næste par år. Jeg er ufattelig træt af at tænke på og snakke om den, og nu vil jeg videre med mit liv. Jeg håber oprigtigt at google kan finde indlægget frem hvis du står i samme situation som jeg gjorde for 3 år siden.
Peace.

EXCHANGE AT PRATT INSTITUTE BROOKLYN

The next semester I am going to spend at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. The blog will function as a kind of diary, in part for my teachers in Amsterdam to see what I am working on, but also for my own sake, to get some distance to my works and to write down what I am doing and want to do.
My classes are as following:

4 credits sculpture (the major)
2 credits digital photography
2 credits film
2 credits drawing
2 credits welding

The photography classes means that I can print all I want as long as I provide the paper. It opens up for some works that are more easily transported than sculptures. I have an idea that I would like to mediate the physical sculptures so that the piece is not a physical object but rather a film, an altered photograph etc. It is only a vague idea at the moment, but I think that I would like to work towards making sculptures with a more narrative approach.
In May I need to go back for the assesment in Amsterdam, that leaves me with a bit more than 3 months to experiment.
The idea of incorporating text is also something that I've been thinking about. English being a second language is a bit of a barrier. I mean, no matter how hard I try, I'll never obtain the fluency of a native speaker. It is a possibility to write in Danish, but then not even my teachers are going to perceive the meaning. 
Anyway, I've promised myself that there is going to be a weekly update, writing it down in a blog post is probably going to validate it a bit more.
I need to make at least 1 blog post a week.



This week I went to Brooklyn Museum, The Sculpture Center, an opening and MOMA Ps1. The photo I stole from the internet.

                                         James Turrell: Meeting (1986)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cog_%28advertisement%29

Grey Roots

I am now finished with the Grey Roots project in the Amsterdamse Bos!
Opening on Sunday.

skovtur

Opel Rekord 1900 L

It is going to be mine one day

Jean Tinguely

Summer holidays done

I have started school, and with that I am hoping to start blogging again. I am not trying to pretend anything , the blog is completely self-absorbed.

Today I spent mostly on my bicycle

Geuzenveld - Rietveld Academie 9,6 km
Rietveld - Amsterdamse Bos office 5,6 km
Amsterdamse Bos office - Waterlooplein 12,5 km
Waterlooplein - Albert Cuypstraat 2 km
Albert Cuypstraat - Geuzenveld 9,8 km

Total minimum biked distance today : 39,5 km
I don't really like it. I have learned that music sweetens the ride. Today was Black Sabbath day.
But I don't even have a bike that I am satisfied with - which is why I am gonna build a new bike : 

The frame I found on the street and is surprisingly light.
I am mostly learning from youtube videos, but it can be really annoying sometimes. Anyway, starting out with the bottom bracket and then moving on to crank-arms. I am really excited to see if I have bought the right bottom bracket.
But first, tomorrow I am going with the school to Documenta 13.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/

Pacific Trash Vortex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

Could’ve Would’ve Should’ve

On Werner Hertzhog’s ’The Wild Blue Yonder’

So basically what I am trying to say with my art here at Cabo Verde, Werner has already pointed out brilliantly in his documentary ’The Wild Blue Yonder’. I don’t really know what to do now. It is quite interesting in the terms that I can now look back at a monumental project that only existed in my mind and see what I did wrong, what I should do better. A thing I really need to avoid is the movie taking itself too seriously. I think that it is easier said then done.

 My own project is ridicously amateuristic. I am even tired of the theme that popped into my head when I came here. As if there was not enough people pointing out what is wrong with the western world already. Fuck it, fuck it fuck it fuck it. I guess the lesson learned is that I should down grade my ambitions (nothing new under the sun there) and also the whole ’taking vantage point in the materiality angle instead of ideas’ is a dead end.

I interviewed Uli today. Uli is 65 years old and every day around 10am he pedals his moon car with a trailer to kite beach. Uli does not believe that anything we experience is reality and therefore we are free to just enjoy. He spends the summers in Sicily and the winters in Cape Verde. He is also a very skilled wave-rider . I haven’t looked at the footage yet but I have a hunch that it is going to play a key role in the exhibition. I am thinking about calling it ’Motor Planet’ after a garage here. It is definitely a theme that I am going to let go of when I come back. I am sick and tired of it, and worst part is that I don’t feel (if I succeded really well) that it would do any difference to anyone.

I am also tired of the fact that I have not found a place to set up the exhibition yet. I planned with the thought that I was going to exhibit in the Glass Pavilion. I did not hear from them for two weeks after I send my proposal and then I sent a notification (hvad hedder ’rykker’ på engelsk ?) and got an answer 3 hours later saying that the pavilion is completely booked for the rest of the semester. I could really have done with that message after my first email. I am really frustrated of the general attitude at Rietveld. I get a feeling that the employees just don’t take us seriously – over and over. Anyway – I am going to go through with the exhibition for the doorloop (rundgang) and then I will change theme and start painting again. After I’ve made a couple of kinetic sculptures. I really want to make this toy-size elephant, paint it pink, suspend it in a string from the ceiling and then stick a propeller out from its arse and make it spin in circles really fast. Absurd and ridiculous as it should be. I’ve actually been scared to write it down in a public forum fearing that someone would steal the idea. I decided that it had probably been done before and that no idea is sacred. Just look at Olaffur. I don’t think any of his installations are his own ideas. When I took 10th grade I did it at an animation school. My most sacred learning from there was to understand to Kill Your Darlings. Focusing on one idea is not making for any creative processes. That is not my worry though. I have the same problem now as I had then – I am not incapable of getting ideas – it’s the other way around. I have trouble believing in the potential of my ideas. I should be more of a megalomaniac, I definitely should.