Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Caravan From Istanbul gets a Christchurch airing

On Saturday December 24th starting at 12 midday New Zealand-Dutch artist, Sonja van Kerkhoff will give a herd of origami elephants an airing along the Cashel Street Mall.


Photo: Sen McGlinn.
Dec 7th, 2011, Sonja with her herd in the Octagen, Dunedin, Aotearoa / New Zealand. Click on the photo to see a larger view in a new window.

Otago Daily Times article, Dec 8th


The performance, “Caravan to Istanbul,” was performed in Istanbul while she was there as one of 8 artists in the New Zealand exhibition, “Te Kore Rongo Hungaora” (Uncontainable second nature), at the international new media festival, ISEA Istanbul.


To see photos of the Istanbul performance to go "Caravan to Istanbul"


As she was driving to Istanbul, via a number of other art-related projects, she was thinking of a way to represent a kind of globalism not dominated by money or economic policies. Caravans, in days of old, were dominated by the practicalities of getting from place to place, by politics and by cultural conditions. Van Kerkhoff believes this is still the case, only that so often what we read as ‘international news’ in our newspapers emphasizes the doings of the global elite. Each elephant in her international herd originates from a particular location in one of over 20 countries she has travelled through with this herd.


Photo: Sen McGlinn.
Sonja with the herd from Istanbul in the Nelson Saturday Market, Montgomery Square, Dec 17th, 2011.


Art and culture have been the main influencing factors here. For example one elephant in this herd is made from an Italian village church newsletter, from a church Van Kerkhoff visited. Others use printed material from the Venice Biennale, and from galleries in the Philippines. Come see how the herd is faring at its third airing in the country. Previous locations were Dunedin, Murchison and, last Saturday, in between downpours, Nelson.


Photo: Sen McGlinn.
Three of the herd in the Nelson Saturday Market, Montgomery Square, Dec 17th, 2011.

More photos in various locations: www.sonjavank.com/caravan.htm

Friday, June 10, 2011

dia voorstelling over aspecten van spiritualiteit in de Nieuw-Zeelandse Maori cultuur

Aspecten van spiritualiteit in de Nieuw-Zeelandse Maori cultuur

22 June - 19:30 - 22:30

Maak kennis met de Maori cultuur door een dia voorstelling van Sonja van Kerkhoff (Taranaki, Nieuw Zeeland). Voorbeelden van Maori kunst; van traditioneel tot hedendaags worden ook getoond.



ActiVite office building,


Simon Smitweg 8


(directly behind and across from the Rijnlands hospital)
Leiderdorp

Ook is er een expositie van Sen + Sonja op hetzelfde locatie t/m 26 juni 2011
meer info >> www.sonjavank.com/2011activite.htm





Sonja will give a presentation on spiritual/cultural aspects of the Maori culture. If English only speakers are present she will do this is English + Dutch.

Free entry.

Send an email to a.vd.houten [AT] activite.nl before 5 p.m. on June 22nd to reserve a place or click "yes" or "maybe" on the Facebook event by midday on the same day.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Open air Hotel in Utrecht, Leiden + Delft - OpenluchtHotel


Utrecht 18/19 June 2011
Leiden 21 June 2011
Delft 10 September 2011

Visitors can register to book to sleep in one of these artist-beds in the open air in one of these cities. More info in Dutch only is here: www.openluchthotel.nu our bed is an ode to Shakepeare and all of the senses including taste.

"Under perfumed flowers I lie, there I couch when owls do cry"


by Sonja van Kerkhoff + Sen McGlinn

[with apolgies to Shakepeare's The Tempest]
Peaseblossom is the name of one of the fairies in Shakepeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who serves the Queen of the Fairies.
This open hotel location is an interpretation of the type of bed she could have made where you can see, smell and taste "pea blossoms" growing through willow branch forms.

Peaseblossom is de naam van een van de feeen uit Shakespeare's A midsummer Night's Dream die de Koningin der Feeen dient.
Dit is een interpretatie van het soort bed dat zij had kunnen maken, waarin je de door de wilgentakkenbeelden groeiende (pronk)erwt bloesems kunt zien, ruiken en proeven.

In Leiden our bed will be set amidst trees in the Kaasmarktschool, artist studio courtyard, Koppenhinksteeg 13

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Darling Buds exhibition in London

For those in or around London, we have two installations in this show curated by
Davinia-ann Robinson, Rebecca Hallett, Nelly Curtis, Jessica Mautner, and Boudicca Collins

at:

Parlour Project Space
181-185 Queens Crescent, NW5 4DS
London, United Kingdom

Open: 6 - 10 May 2011
Fri-Tues: 11:00am - 6:00pm

installations by

Grace Adam, Daniel Bourke, Matt Gee, Sian Griffiths, Melissa Henderson, Sadie Hennessy, Fiona Long and Sonja Van Kerkhoff & Sen McGlinn.

There's a blog about this exhibition and a facebook page.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

2 feb video screenings + bijna een laatste kans om de installaties te bekijken

2 Feb 2011:
19:30 - 20:45

Sonja presents 4 short videos with discussion in between (in nederlands or English)

20:45 - 21:30
Opportunity to view the exhibition
"The unwanted land"
with installations by Tiong Ang, David Bade, Renée Ridgway, Dirk de Bruyn, Sonja van Kerkhoff


Stills from "Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen"




There will also be opportunity to ask Sonja questions inside the installation Kāinga a roto (Home within / Innerlijk huis)

You can view a 5 minute of footage of Kāinga a roto on YouTube below and there's a page of photos about the exhibition here and a page focussed just on Sonja and Sen's installation here or see: www.theunwantedland.com

The programme for the evening is:
7:30: "Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen" (13 min),
won the regional (Limburg) Gulden Vlam award in 1994 in the category, documentary.
The main actors are Sonja's young children, who simultaneously foreground as well as function as background for associative narratives on various levels.

5-10 min question and answer session.

"Athena" (2 min), 1994,
a dance-choreographic work on the theme of wisdom from a feminine viewpoint.

"360 Clockwise around Europe" (3 min) 2010,
music by Sandy Hoover (USA) Kath Tait (UK)

A response to living in Europe for the past two decades. The footage selected from the EU archive contrasts diverse aspects of European life-worlds: cities, institutions, as well as historical events with stills of our family in diverse places - a mix of private and public worlds; a commentary on how we all play a role in a changing Europe.

5-10 min question and answer session.

"Essences and Particularities" (6 min) 1994,
music by Evren Celimli (USA).
Mythopoeic drawings constantly metamorphasize while a choir sing in medival style. We often think of universals as being what connects us to God or to our soul. Here the particular or exceptional are the means for 'stories' or the 'differend'.

5-10 min question and answer session.

20:45 - 21:30, Viewing of the exhibition "The Unwanted Land" and discussion inside "Kainga a roto" (Home within)

Entrée / entry fee for both museum and the screening > 5 euros

RSVP: 7 p.m. 31st January 2011 to either:
info@beeldenaanzee.nl
or ring:
070 358 58 57 between 11 - 5, Tuesdays to Sundays.

Museum Beelden aan Zee website
Harteveltstraat 1
2586 Den Haag