A PLANT, 4 CHAIRS, 272 SPHERES_

Sara Bjarland, Aldo Kroese, Esther Polak/Ivar van Bekkum
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Opening Friday 27th April 17:00<20:00 with music by Johnny Fishborn & food

Closing Sunday 13th May 14:00<18:00 with presentation bij Polak/vanBekkum

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What do photographs of dead plants, endless water circulation through chairs and gps registration of spheres above the Erasmuspark have in common?
- a poetics of showing natural processes  - in time or movement?
- their roots - in Bos en Lommer and the Bolo-k art routes?
- individually strong works worth being seen - and even seeing again?
You never know beforehands, that’s the nice part of any good story.
So well, come and find out more!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sara Bjarland [*1981, Helsinki] graduated from The Slade School of Fine Art in London in 2007, and has since been working and living in Amsterdam. She is currently also participating in the studio program at HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in Gent, Belgium. Recent shows include: New Energy, upcoming artists from Amsterdam West at KunstEnHuis, Amsterdam, Young Artists 2011 at Kunsthalle Helsinki, and the solo show Possible wings at C3 Gallery, Amsterdam.

“For the work The Forsaken, I am collecting and photographing houseplants that I find on the streets of Amsterdam. The plants are almost always in a state of decay, withered, dried out, half dead. They have quite a tragicomical appearance; as if they depict the failure of the person who 'gave up' on them, they almost look like caricatures of people. I'm interested in the houseplants as consumer products and how this reflects the idea of nature as something disposable or replaceable.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aldo Kroese [The Hague, 1976] graduated in 2007 from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam. Besides art, he studied Physical Education and Psychology. He exhibited in various places in- and outside of the Netherlands. He showed his work in W139 Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Stroom Den Haag, KIM? Riga, Pantheon Gallery Nicosia, Junge Kunst Wolfsburg and Cluster Berlin.

Aldo Kroese’s sculptures and installations are not stationary. Time and movement are the coordinates within which he conceptualises his works. Like experimental setups, the ephemeral works change from one state to the next in accordance with rules specified by the artist. Recently, water is a re-occurring theme and medium in his work. In March 2012 he published the book Separating Circle (Kerber verlag, Germany) in which he puts the different qualities of water into an artistic context.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Esther Polak & Ivar van Bekkum have collaborated since 2004, finding new ways to explore the visualization of landscape, and experience of space, by means of GPS technology. Esther Polak (1962) studied graphic art and mixed media and is interested in how technology determines (visual) perception. She was one of the first artists to make large-scale art explorations using GPS (Global Positioning System) mapping. Ivar van Bekkum (1965) studied journalism and worked as (graphic) designer. He is interested in how technological art can function in an autonomous-art historical context. Huba de Graaff - composer, Amsterdam. Studied sonology in Utrecht and composition at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague with Gilius van Bergeijk, Louis Andriessen, Frederic Rzewski, Dick Raaymakers, Walter Zimmermann. co-founder WILco.nu : independent musictheatre.

In “What's done cannot be undone”, as if they are digital birds of prey, Polak van Bekkum and De Graaff circle around one exact coordinate in Google Earth, dreaming a spatial etude above the Erasmuspark  in Amsterdam.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johnny Fishborn is a singer-songwriter from Italy staying two months in Bos en Lommer where spring is so beautiful. He’ll play acoustic songs from his album RIVER BROTHER DESERT LOVER [2012].

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All links:

Sara Bjarland: www.sarabjarland.eu
Aldo Kroese: www.aldorado.nl

Esther Polak & Ivar van Bekkum: www.polakvanbekkum.nl | www.beelddiktee.nl | HD video on vimeo
Huba de Graaff: www.hubiware.nl | www.wilco.nu
Johnny Fishborn: johnnyfishborn.bandcamp.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pictures [all credits to the respective artists]:
1. Sara Bjarland, Untitled I, from the series The Forsaken [photography]

2. Aldo Kroese, Fountain #9 [sculpture-installation, studio view - detail]

3. Esther Polak & Ivar van Bekkum: “What’s done cannot be undone” [kmz file in Google Earth; also available as HD video loop; duration 6:00 min]

tram 7/12/14, bus 15/21/80/82

info & appointment: julie@kulter.nl