Private view: Friday 10th May 7pm – Late
Exhibition continues: Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th May 12 to 5pm daily
Group critique: Saturday 11th May at 2pm
Rotterdam based artists:
Eva van der Craats
Sue van Geijn
Iris Schuttevaar
Nicole Sciarone
Sanne Verhoeven
Michelle Wigman
Calibrating Collaboration is the first exhibition in a series of three by the Dutch initiative ‘The time it takes to make a baby.’ The initiative was set up by 9 students from the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
These 9 artists are all participating in an international exchange to different academies and institutes around the world. To follow each other’s work and progress they have set up a website on which each artist has their own space and where a visual development can be formed and viewed.
The title refers to the period of time between the formation of the original idea for the project, in December 2012 and a planned exhibition in September 2013; a period of nine months. Connections between the nurturing of a project and of an unborn child are present, as well as carrying around ones ideas for a length of time and seeing them grow from an idea to a finished work of art. The exhibition in September will be a reaction to the website and the work of the individual artists, as well as the experiences of the artists’ time abroad.
As with any pregnancy, one has to check on the progress and growth of the baby, or project in this case. Three exhibitions are planned over the next nine months; one for each trimester. These exhibitions can be seen as echo scans checking on the progress made by the artists, showing their development over time and ending with the exhibition in September displaying the final stage.
‘Calibrating Collaboration’ is the first “echo scan” in the series and will be an international exhibition creating links between University of the West of England (UWE), WdKA and other academies around the world such as
The starting point for the exhibition will be 12 blueprints that explain how to create an art piece. Six of these blueprints will be designed by UWE students and the other six by WdKA students. An exchange of these designs will take place where each artist will receive a blueprint from a different country. The art works explained within these blue prints will then be created on site at Motorcade Flashparade.
www.thetimeittakestomakeababy.com
Artist biographies
Inspired by absurdity and simplicity with a blend of humor, shown in a non conformist appearance - Teng Foong
Within my practice I am exploring notions of self in relation to situations derived from what I see as a constantly changing cultural environment. My work operates in a way that reduces its context to its lowest common denominator to reveal the bare nature of what it is one preceives. At the same time I attempt to manipulate what is seen in a way that alters ones perception and gives rise to questions that, given the work's context as a whole, may not have been addressed - Tristan Dougan
Lisa Shuh works primarily with photography, video, and 3D installation, and seeks to merge ideas from philosophy and science with art. Themes of particular interest stem from current thinking in theoretical physics regarding multi-dimensional reality and quantum mechanics, chaos/complexity theory, and fractal geometry - Lisa Shuh
My art is rooted in the evolution of social practices; in the subtle everyday changes and gradual bureaucratisation of society that otherwise go unobserved due to their familiarity. I am interested in the interface between the individual and the state, the changing boundaries between public and private - John Steed
My sculptural practice is series of excavations exploring boundaries of space through processes of subtraction. I create minimal and fragile pieces that mirror the notion of the void as an introspective and sublime space. The sculptural forms represent an attempt to realise the infinite nature of our extended consciousness - Dan Wilkinson
I'm currently taking drawing as my main media, and am interested in the relationship of the human body and mind with the natural forms, shapes and textures found in everyday life. Merging them and creating an art that should be fun - R.ray Xu
By using the viewpoint of a camera I create a new reality around everyday objects or events. I search for answers to the questions of what reality is, what makes this reality an everyday event and what different realities we can distinguish and what differences exist between these realities. These questions and possible answers is what I bring across in my practice - Eva van der Craats.
I work as an investigator of the space between the personal and the universal. My work floats from one medium into another and never has a solid form: the beginning is the end is the beginning is the end - Sue van Geijn
My work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art and social practice. I try to create a diverse body of artwork that explores urbanity, spatial justice, and land-based poetics. Employing a broad range of media from writhing to performance, my works examine the tension between politics and poetics, individual action and impotence. In the blue print I challenge the other artist to find new connections in the text, to introduce him/her self in a double thought. To find a new dialogue, like two forks stuck together - Iris Schuttevaar
I dissect thoughts and ideas, giving them physical form by noting them, mapping them and translating them into images. Thought and thought processes play such an important role in my work that I have become more and more interested in how we form thoughts, essentially how the brain works as what we are able to experience is completely limited by our biology. It is with this knowledge of how we perceive the world, experience it and how ideas and thoughts are formed that I can question them and warp them - Nicole Sciarone
My work is about the positive things in life, looking at the world as a little child; the unexpected. It's about the joy of seeing. For me, creating is to stop thinking and search for a sort of 'freedom' feeling. This is expressed through colour, an atmosphere, a photo, a painting, a text or a sketch. The process and the fun I have in making/creating is, most of the time, more important then the final work - Sanne Verhoeven
Sometimes I feel like I am a collector. Collecting the impressions that enter my brain, translating them into little sentences and drawings, pictures and videos. I see them all as sketches. It's only when I start combining, transforming and comparing all these observations, I find out what their meaning is, and more importantly, I discover what I want to tell the viewers.
I think Individual creativity can be seen as a search for your own language. Through this language I see my own observations being translated into what I want to communicate -Michelle Wigman
