‘Stootblauw’
In collaboration with Anne ten Ham at Circa…Dit in Arnhem.
Circa…Dit invited Anne and I to work on a project for two months as part of the recurring Wildtuin residency. Anne and I had not met before and this project brought our different views and practices together in a surprising way. During the research period of six weeks, we explored the medieval historic cellars of Arnhem, above which the space of Circa…Dit is located. We wandered underground and talked about time, our mutual interest. It seemed as if the cellars acted a some sort of time capsule, conserving goods and wares inside, but at the same time maintaining itself, surviving through the ages up until this point in time.
One of the goods that used to be stored in these cellars were potatoes, the unofficial typical Dutch ‘vegetable’. We decided to delve deep into the world of potatoes and to find out if and how we could use this vegetable for our exhibition. Luckily we were kindly sponsored by Van der Windt Agri, who gave us a load of rejected potatoes. The violent act of throwing potatoes in the basement was something we wanted to replicate in the space of Circa…Dit, altering and using an air shaft which was located in the space. Over the course of four weeks we and the audience would shove and dump 400 kilograms of potatoes down the shaft and into the exhibition space. Creating a growing mountain of potatoes. Every visitor would get a bag op potatoes around 2,5 kilograms, which is the average amount of food we needlessly throw away each month in the Netherlands. Anne and I also created works with which we each reflected on the basements in out own way. During the opening we also provided a taste test pairing six different brand of potato chips. The potatoes that were used eventually ended up at a local farm as food for cows.
‘Stootblauw’
400 kgs of potatoes, Circa…Dit
Dur: 4 months
Series of paintings made for ‘Stootblauw’
Oils and Acrylics on cardboard