We are in the third week of the artist-in-residency project at the Zuiderzee Museum where museum room 4 is transformed into our temporary artists studio. Karin just finished her third oil painting. Source of inspiration for this painting "Bird Island" was a picture she took at the dike between Enkhuizen and Lelystad.
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| Karin Bos, Bird Island, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm. |
The blog continues: August 2nd: In the morning we received a private tour at the depot of the museum, which was very interesting. Lots of paintings, furniture, objects, ceramic tiles, clotches, etc.
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| Depot Zuiderzeemuseum. |
In the afternoon the press arrived to interview us and report the launch of "Time".
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| Deconstructing TIME at the museum room |
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| The sculpture is carried out through the garden of the indoor museum |
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| The procession continues along the dike of the outdoor museum |
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| Arrival at the outdoor museum docks |
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| Entering the boat |
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| Dropping the first ring of TIME into the water |
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| Handing over the second ring |
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| yes it floats |
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| The third ring is launched |
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| Rearranging the rings |
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| audience |
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| Is this the right spot? |
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| A wire got stuck in the pump |
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| The press is making pictures |
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| Tada, let's do it. |
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| Floating TIME in action. |
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| Ready. The rings will stay in the water until August 12 and Erik will rearrange them on a regular base to try out different options. |
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| Dinner on the street in front of our house at the outdoor museum |
August 3rd: Erik is busy rearranging TIME
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| Now the pump is not covering one of the rings anymore, but all three are clearly visible. |
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| Karin Bos, Objects of desire, Venus II, mixed media on paper |
Meanwhile Karin is working on her "Objects of desire" in the museum room, and trying to explain to bewildered visitors how the mind of an artist works..
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| Another amazing spot at the outdoor museum to catch some evening sun after opening hours. |
August 4th: Erik is working on applying a pattern on his pond sculpture.
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| Erik draws the pattern which will function as a guideline for applying the mosaics. |
It would be great to use tiles (the broken ones from the D-collection of the museum) from the depot of the museum! We discussed it with the museum staff members a week ago or so, and are now waiting for a go or no go..
The pattern is based on the nerves of a waterplant leaf, which does not follow the shape of the sculpture, therefore adding another layer to the piece. The lines will be filled with dark blue tile mosaics, and the forms in between the lines will (hopefully!) be filled with some of the amazing tiles we saw at the museum depot.
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| In the mean time Karin finished two more sketches of Zuiderzee Museum Girls for her fund raising project. |
The sketches can be purchased for a symbolic amount of 150 euro per piece to support the Moving Targets projects. They are also available online: see blog post number 3 for the complete series.
August 5: The last week!
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| The drawn pattern will function as a guideline for the mosaics. |
Karin is looking for pin-up girls to use them for her "Objects of desire" series. She found the perfect one in yesterdays newspaper: the icon Marilyn Monroe who died fifty years ago today. In the watercolour drawing the pose looks uncomfortable and the model not at ease, as if she is struggling, with her "shell dress" or her role as sex symbol.
(Popping up question: How would Marilyn look today if she would be young and alive, would she have an anorexia figure, or perhaps a tattoo?)
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| Karin Bos, Objects of desire III, Marilyn shell dress, mixed media on paper. |
August 6th: It rains all day and it is so dark in the museum room that Karin decides that it has no use trying to produce a new work. In her Amsterdam studio she would just switch on the lights (special day light lamps) and paint.
Erik is still waiting for the white smoke to come, so both artists are visitor guides today instead of producing artists.
August 7th: There's another (very nice!) article published about our project in todays newspaper of Noord Hollands Dagblad, written by Tanja Koopen.
Unfortunately the scan we received from the museum can't be published or altered to fit on the blog, so it has to wait
August 8th: Tada, here it is:
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| Noord Hollands Dagblad, August 7 2012 |
August 9th:
One thing we didn't realize when we said yes to this project is the impact it has on ones mind being under constant surveillance. Of course we are watched by the visitors while we are working in the museum room, that's part of the whole concept. However, next to this, there's a huge 360º vision camera right above Karins worktable, and Erik is being watched by a camera as well. It makes one super conscious of every gesture one makes.
The premises of the outdoor museum are also very well protected. Cameras are covering every inch of the village and as the security guards told us: “We can see everything and the cameras also have perfect night vision.”
So we are under 24/7 surveillance!
There are several smoke-detectors in our house. We start to wonder if they are really just smoke-detectors or … Paranoia kicks in: We might think that we signed up for an artist-in-residency project while in fact we are acting in a real life soap without knowing. The movie The Truman Show comes to mind.
A security guard tells us that we are not supposed to leave the house and roam around after opening hours. When we want to get out we have to walk in a straight line from A to B. (A being our house and B the exit gate.)
The, let's call it the 'artistic type', of course, never walks straight from A to B, but want to make d-tours, try out C or D and then perhaps decides to go for B but along the road discovers E. It is definitely a culture clash. Our 'Big Brother is watching you'-feeling is complete when a speaker suddenly shouts “It is forbidden to walk on the dike after opening hours”.
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| at the outdoor museum |
One could consider it a gift, this unexpected side-effect of our project. Well, a gift .., let's call it a learning experience. To experience the feeling how it might feel to be locked-up, without actually being imprisoned; we can leave whenever we would like. How it affects ones mind when realizing being watched all the time. It's a eery feeling when each step can trigger a silent alarm, but which step?
Also, how it feels not knowing when one might bend or violate a rule. Because the 'rules' are a mythical thing; everybody might have a different set of rules, or the rules alter all the time.
Another fine example was a night when a friend surprised us by sailing to the museum. We reported security, following the house rules, that we had a guest coming by boat. It was a fairy tale sight when the boat sailed in under a starry night. An hour later, after emptying the wine in our fridge, we went back to the boat to collect another bottle when suddenly a guard appeared shining a flash-light into our eyes shouting “You don't make the rules! I have to report this!”
We talk a lot about the novel Der Prozess by Franz Kafka and, of course, 1984 by George Orwell during this residency. In daily life we tend to forget that our privacy is often under attack. Governments, banks, Google, Facebook, all know more about us than we might like or feel at ease with.
August 10th: Today the works are selected which will be part of the exhibition "The Colour of Water" at the museum which runs until October 28th 2012. The artists will receive these pieces back afterwards.
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| The three rings of TIME by Erik Wuthrich are from today part of the exhibition. |
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| The watercolour of Zuiderzee museum girls by Karin Bos is placed in the exhibition next to her watercolour Safe Haven from 2011. |
August 11th: Last weekend!
Last change to visit the 'live artists studio' in museum room 4 at the indoor Zuiderzee Museum.
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| Erik Wuthrich, untitled, glass, acrylics, stone. |
Obviously the visitors look at us and our work, but we look back! We observed that the two blue glass sculptures of Erik Wuthrich are so tactile that almost every child walking in touches it. The parents say "do not touch that" to their kids, but they can't resist it themselves and the adults touch it too. It is very funny to watch and every day we wipe the fingerprints off the glass with a smile.
August 12th: Last day with lots of friends and relatives visiting.
August 13th: Moving all our stuff back to the artists studios in Amsterdam and Maarsbergen.
Now we are working again in the private practice of our studios. Of course you can still visit us, but you'll have to make an appointment first: karinbos@xs4all.nl and wuut@xs4all.nl
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| The pond sculpture in progress (upside down) by Erik Wuthrich in his Maarsbergen studio. |
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| And finally.......TADA it is finished!! The floating fountain by Erik Wuthrich can be purchased, just contact the artist for more information: wuut@xs4all.nl |
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| The complete series of Zuiderzee Museum Girls by Karin Bos is purchased by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
www.karinbos.info
www.erikwuthrich.nl
www.zuiderzeemuseum.nl
