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Every artist stands on the shoulders of many predecessors.   Through their artworks, I came to see the world better. In this almost endless line, there is one artist who is easily recognizable in my work. 

André Cadere was active between 1970 and his death in 1978. At that time you could have come across him at an opening with his mobile sculpture, his “barre ronde de bois”.   
The photo shows me with Hans Eijkelboom during an opening (March 23 2024) at the Kröller-Müller Museum.  

The mobile sculpture in my hand I call staff. The wood of this staff (#103) was felled by beavers and delivered to my studio by rivers.

André Cadere would have turned 90 this year.












Staff #103, ready to travel in a small suitcase.


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Endless Diversity

The 28 parts make a dance while the paint is hardening.
Staff # 101 stands sometimes (built up)
in the front yard of Institute Johanna de Lestonnac. Dobbelmannweg 5 Nijmegen.

The sculpture Endless Diversity (staff #101)  calls for breaking the pattern of monoculture.

(Over forty percent of the surface area in the Netherlands is used for monoculture. Twenty percent of the Netherlands is full of the monocultures for the purpose of cattle feed; grass and corn.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Staf #101

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Staff 87

Staff 87 is dedicated to Stacey Abrams who founded Fair Fight Action, an organization to address voter suppression in Georgia USA.

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During an extended stay in Georgia in 2018, I experienced the valiant fight against voter suppression led by Stacey Abrams. Back in the Netherlands, I dedicate a staff to her. 

 

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Carry Hate

………..    Carry Hate

In front of you and harmony behind.

Be deaf to music and to beauty blind.

Win war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late

For having first to civilize a space

Wherein to play your violin with grace.
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Lines from the poem
‘First Fight. Then Fiddle’
by Gwendolyn Brooks,1949

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Carry Hate (Staff # 71)  125cm. < # 70  #>74

 

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Into the Wild

A sculpture by Frank Bezemer consists of separate parts that are connected to form a staff, antenna or a scepter. The antenna is ideal for receiving signals from the cosmos. The staff is the perfect tool to directly connect with mother earth.

Ans Verdijk goes into the wild with staf # 94 (The wood for this staff was felled by beavers. Then delivered by rivers to the artist’s studio.)
Staff # 94 158cm private collection
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‘Woeste Grond’

Exhibition Woeste Grond at Art Space Alarm Oeffeltseweg 21 Beugen The Netherlands every Saturday 13.00-17.00 till sept 4 2021. Also open at Sunday August 29


Filmmaker Nina de Vroome  at the exhibition Woeste Grond. The two staffs, on the left (#93) and on the right (#94), were felled by beavers and then transported by rivers to the artist studio.  Each staff is the perfect tool to receive signals from the cosmos or to get into connection with Mother Earth. 

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I.M. Enrico Castellani

24 – 27 giugno 2022 Bar San Rocco, Piazza S. Rocco 12 Celleno (VT)

 The picture shows a box decorated with a staff.  It is the container of the staff entitled: I.M. Enrico Castellani (and numbered #81).  

     The painted container and the sculpture  are my tributes to Enrico Castellani’s works of art; his formalist poems in silver and white. Most of all I like his paper stack. Spartito, 1969/2004.  
(Read more of Enrico Castellani in The Guardian)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It is also a tribute to Celleno where he lived until his death in December 2017. Celleno where I like to work in wintertime.  Celleno reminds me of the village I grew up in. All people connected. Connectivity and reunion are my subjects in my art practice. 

     In the village I grew up in, there lived a painter at the time. His studio was located between kindergarten and home.  At a friend’s house during primary school, I saw one of his gloomy but yet intriguing paintings of a swamp. Before I left the village to go to high-school, I tried to get up the nerve to interview him in his studio. 
He answered my questions while he was working on a painting. At one point he pushed his brush in purple paint – I was afraid he was distracted or irritated because of my questions and would soon spoil the painting with this ugly purple. The opposite happened, the painting gained more meaning instead! It was an eye-opening event!   
     In Celleno I hoped for an equally inspiring meeting, but in fact I was a  month too late; when I arrived in January 2018 Enrico Castellani had just passed away, aged 87.  
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 Some months later I made these ‘poems’ in black, white and gold dedicated to the artist Enrico Castellani and his direct environment.   
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Staff # 81 I.M. Enrico Castellani