Opening Report Sunday 03.10.10 17:00<20:00

Another lazy sunday afternoon at Kulter yesterday. In the last rays of summer sun, accompanied by music from the block party one street away, Kulter presented three artists and a musician.

Deniz Guvensoy came especially from Turkey to exhibit her paintings after visiting Kulter last year. Vanessa de Gruijter put her black ceramic sculptures on display and Anja Hertenberger showed her vivid blow-up suits.

Curator and owner Julie Dassaud introduced the three artists with a somewhat enigmatic story of how they came to meet. Bottom line is that all of these meetings happened by accident. No premeditation or theme, but a relation based on how artist and collective work in mutual admiration  ‘Happy little accidents’ as Bob Ross would call it.

That is what we as an audience, felt as well. We came in different shape, age, and colour but somehow we all fit in.

The exhibition created some unexpected surprises. I was put on a suit with a black balloon, that expands and deflates as I approached people. Like a little bird on my shoulder, the black balloon told people to come close, and as they did deflated itself. I don’t know if the performance will be live next week, but if not, there is a video of how the suits work. Check it out!

The paintings of Deniz Guvensoy are a display of how human identity is re-formed by the virtual world. We see diluted portraits mirrored in computer screens. The paintings were illustrated by musician Hakkie Takkie with a mix of samples and Turkish dance music.

Three black ceramic monkeys guided us out after eating some pasta and drinking some beers. The monkeys are lying still and seem completely at ease, but at second glance they are all missing something. Vulnerable in material and form but very strong as an image.

Kulter. #18 | EXTENSIONS | 3<10 OCTOBER, 2010

Deniz Guvensoy paintings, collages
Vanessa de Gruijter sculptures, ceramic
Anja Hertenberger bubbles interactive textile

Open Thurs.-Sun., 13:00<18:00 & on appointment. Until 10.10.10
Yes, the interactive Hysterical Bubbles work also during the exhibition

Marshall MacLuhan wrote it in the 1960’s: The wheel is an extension of a human foot.
In the same way an artists’ work can be seen as an extension of a basic aspiration to explain one’s own identity.

But how far can you apply this theory?

Kulter presents three artists who objectively present something “sticking out”. Vanessa de Gruijter’s third monkey sculpture is sliding off its socle. The inflatable textile bubbles by Anja Hertenberger are popping out of corporate suits. The collages in Deniz Guvensoys’ mixed media works, are an extension of her paintings.

Three times the aspiration to explain one’s own identity? No, on the contrary. It is the  expression of projection; the extension is the audience.

The soundscapes by Hakki Takki intent to extend this to music. Come and check out!

DOWNLOAD hier het persbericht in het nederlands - K18_extensions.pdf

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Deniz Guvensoy

[collages, paintings, extensions, hyperreality, human]

Deniz Guvensoy made for Kulter. a new collages and paintings series with a specific view to this “extensions” exhibition. She brings actually together two thema’s she’s been working on since 2009: animals and environment, man and technology.

Her work depicts in a very direct way a desire to emancipate from the surrounded hyperreality created  by manufactured landscapes and facebook pages.

In her last work she’s going a step beyond the descriptive aspect of the story: she makes the viewer observe the observing viewer. In such a direct way.

pictures:
Virtual, oil on canvas, 80 x 110 cm  | Jenny, collage en acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm

bio:

Deniz Guvensoy [Istambul, 1981] studied in Turkey and exhibited in France. Artist, art critic and teacher, she is involved with several collaborative projects including the Amserdam based Tara Projects collective. She worked also together with Hakki Takki [sound] before on an installation project.

contact:

t.: 0090 532 4802035

e.: deniz@denizguvensoy.com

w.: www.denizguvensoy.com | www.taraprojects.info

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Vanessa de Gruijter
[homo homini lupus ceramic sculptures]

In her work Vanessa de Gruijter uses nature as canvas for human projections.

Projections of our romantic longing for unspoiled idealized nature. Nature as (semi-religieus) paradise where animals live as 'Noble Savage”'in peace with itself and its surroundings.

“Homo homini lupus (est)”: man is a wolf to [his fellow] man .

We speak of beast-like behavior when we describe human cruelty. This expression contradicts the romantic notions of the idealized beast as 'Noble Savage'

In the series of sculptures “Homo homini lupus (est)” Vanessa de Gruijter turns this notion around.

and uses animals to express human cruelty. The idealized idea of nature as paradise is destroyed.

Image:
E is for estranged/monkey no.3, ceramics pigments 100x45x35 cm

bio:
In 2006 Vanessa de Gruijter graduated at the Rietveld Academy with small sculptures made of porcelain, sugar and paper. Over the years her work grew in size and she developed her ceramic skills. This year she was an artist-in-resident at the EKWC (European Ceramic WorkCentre) where she made the series of sculptues “Homo homini lupus (est)”.

Her work is shown at Gallery Louise Smit ans Gallery Ton de Boer.

contact/links/websites:
www.vanessadegruijter.com
vrdegruijter@gmail.com

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Anja Hertenberger

[Hysterical Bubbles interactive wearable textile embroidery suit]

A new development in Anja Hertenberger’s “Hysterical Bubble” wearable project.

“Hysterical Bubble” consists in interaction of people in suits, each of which bearing an embroidery bubble that inflates or deflates depanding on the distance beween each other.

At Kulter., the interaction will take place between Anja wearing one of her Bubble suits and different persons from the public wearing a new adjustable Bubble especially designed for that purpose.

“In common speech someone who is excessively expressive can be called hysterical. In psychology hysteria is manly distinguishes by two types of disorder: Conversion disorder (physical symptoms) and Histrionic personality disorder. ‘Hysterical Bubble’ is an artistic translation of the physical symptoms. The physical symptom, the bubble, can be seen as an underlying conflict.” [Anja Hertenberger]

images:
4 embroideries using techniques from 4 countries[Blackwork from England,the Dutch Cross-Stich, and traditional Japanese Embroidery and Schwälmisch from Germany] | Bubble deflates and inflates

bio:

Anja Hertenberger [DE] is involved with different projects at the crossroads between installation, interaction, computer programming, electronics and embroidery, but also drawings, photography or video. Her concern with sructure and order is her way of testing or measuring empirically the relative fields of identity and surveillance, power, controle, machine interaction.

relevante websites / links:

info@anjahertenberger.net

www.anjahertenberger.net

www.workplacesatnight.net

www.e-pressed.net

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Hakki Takki

[electronic music sound experimental live]

Hakki Takki is een geluidskunstenaar uit Amsterdam. Zijn werk varieert van stevige dansmuziek tot Cinematische soundscapes. Het valt het best te omschrijven als spontaan, eigenzinnig en rauw. Zijn liveperformances zijn altijd verrassend en nooit het zelfde. Hakki Takki is tevens de oprichter van Plattegrond. Plattegrond is een Amsterdams netlabel/collectief wat zich richt op performances en het uitbrengen van eigenzinnige composities, in een brede verzameling van electronische muziek. Genres als IDM-Scapes, noise-lounge, breakcore-hardcore, electro-techno vormen een samenhang in het geluid van dit label.
Hakki Takki worked together with Deniz Guvensoy before for an installation project.

 

http://plattegrond.wordpress.com

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