2021: re-cast as repository | residual intimacy
2nd artist-in-residency at Sundaymorning@ekwc, July 29 – Oct 20, 2021. Open studio presentation during Test Case XXIV on Sept 12, 2021.
Follow up of artist-in-residency sedi | senti | ment in 2020 at Sundaymorning@ekwc, the Dutch based centre-of-excellence for ceramics.
With special thanks to the team and advisors of Sundaymorning@ekwc, Sander Alblas of FabLab@ekwc, master mold making Pierluigi Pompei, Natural History Museum Rotterdam and The Hague Archeology, AWN (Volunteers in Archeology), geologist Bert van der Valk, photographer Luuk Smits & fellow artists-in-residents.
Kindly supported by Stroom The Hague.
My work is themed around notions of time, matter, landscapes and climate. I had noticed at the intersection of art, paleontology, geology and archeology a parallel in the becoming of a fossil and of ceramic techniques, like a mold, cast or imprint, and the understanding of climate as temperature, humidity, etc.
I am fascinated by the construction of ‘time’ and changing perceptions of value systems, which we often take for granted.
is a fossil in a museum a fossil or an artifact?
For this 2nd artist-in-residency I brought with me a selection of sedi | senti | ment and added 3 Mammoth fossils (collection Natural History Museum Rotterdam), a spinning whorl (collection Archeology The Hague), living Sphagnum mosses (start of new project Sphagnarium), aardtijd (The becoming, The being & The meanwhile part 5, subsurface as living climate archive with the added notion of foreshadowing) to continue exploring transience of time, hybridity of fossils-artifacts, staged authenticity with contemporary notions (in arts, design, heritage) of re-construct and re-use of source materials, while making use of contemporary technology. During the process of mixing different wild clay bodies with mosses, seaweeds, algae, I discovered residual intimacy.
Inspired by 16th century Cabinets of Curiosity, Wunderkammer or Ratiteitenkabinetten and by 16th century nature-explorer and ceramist Bernard Palissy, I continue to question contemporary binary discourses, of nature-culture, natural-artifactual, naturalia-artificialia and notions of authenticity. Paleontologists and archaeologists use molds and casts as a method of sharing knowledge and insights as a form of ‘open source’ that ties in with the Sundaymorning@ekwc method. How can I develop my hybrid collection and recipes of fossils-artifacts as a form of publication or exhibition, in the context of Sundaymorning@ekwc, the collection of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Archeology The Hague, and beyond?
Keywords: empirical artistic research, seeking for versatile and reciprocal perspectives;
staged authenticity; is a fossil in a museum a fossil or an artifact?
porcelain and paleontological fossils or archeological artifact are generally regarded as something of value. What is the value of soil/Earth?
an art work that is too vulnerable to touch, while seeking sensorial connections with soil/Earth;
discovery of residual intimacy.
2020: sedi | senti | ment
Artist-in-residency June 11 – September 15, 2020 at Sundaymorning@ekwc.
Open studio presentation during Test Case XXII @ ekwc on September 12 and 13, 2020.
With special thanks to the team and advisors of Sundaymorning@ekwc, Sander Alblas of FabLab@ekwc, Marianne Peijnenburg of Rijksakademie, fossils collectors Zandmotor-Dick Mol, Henk Mulder, Bram Langeveld and Bert van der Valk (geologist, Deltares), AWN (Volunteers in Archeology The Hague), photographer Luuk Smits & fellow artists-in-residents.
During my first artist-in- residency in 2020 at Sundaymorning@ekwc, I worked with Mammoth fossil fragments as source material and – combined with old porcelain recipes – developed North Sea Fossils Porcelain, – Celadon and – Sigillata and Fossil fragments | ceramic shards as hybrid index fossil-artifact of upcoming time, in-between a natural phenomenon (of a fossil) and a cultural phenomenon (of an artifact). Eventually successfully 3-d printed with fossil matter. Link
Source materials: Mammoth fossil fragments (donated by fossils collectors), Ginkgo biloba leaf, scallop shells, wild clays.
Source location: Zandmotor.
Techniques, technology: 3-d scans, 3-d prints, molds, pressing, casting, pictures, words.
Shapes: 3-d scan and mold of a fossil of a Wild Horse, imprints of Mammoth fossils.
timescaping | matterscaping | landscaping | climatescaping
2021: re-cast as repository | residual intimacy
Introducing:
re-cast as repository
NMR 6787
308-S75
residual intimacy
ziel
aardtijd | foreshadowing
One and All Chairs, after One and Three Chairs (Joseph Kosuth, 1965)
Source materials: mammoth fossil fragments, donated by fossils collectors; archeological Iron Age pottery shards, donated by AWN, Volunteers in Archeology; wild clays; Sphagnum mosses, seaweeds, algae and biogenic earth materials (sourced at Land in Wording).
Source locations: Zandmotor; The Hague dunes, Land in Wording Amsterdam and several other localities.
Techniques, technology: 3-d scans, 3-d prints, molds, pressing, casting, plembing, pictures, words.
Shapes: 3-d scan and 4-parts mold of damaged Mammoth fossil (NMR 6787), of archeological Iron Age pottery shard as spinning whorl (308-S75), cup with ‘ziel’, and of ‘aardtijd’ (unfired subsurface soils).
Is a fossil in a museum a fossil or an artifact?
NMR 6787
For re-cast as repository, I aim to re-construct a damaged Mammoth fossil (NMR 6787, collection of Natural History Museum Rotterdam) with Mammoth fossil matter as clay body.
The Natural History Museum Rotterdam allowed me to loan 3 fossils of the collection: ulna of Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach, 1799), woolly Mammoths; 1 of them is whole, 2 are damaged. In the process of re-constructing this damaged fossil with North Sea Fossils Porcelain, I needed shrinking tests (-10%), we made 3-d scans, reconstructed the damage with non-shrinking material, a 3-d print with usual printing matter as fitting test, a 3-d print + 10% shrinking compensation to make a 4 parts mold for pressing and casting with North Sea Fossils Porcelain; testing 3-d clay printing with North Sea Fossils Porcelain.
With special thanks to Pierluigi Pompei, master mold making @ekwc and Sander Alblas at FabLab@ekwc.
308-S75
Since 2015 I am a volunteer in archeology. During the recent fieldwork in The Hague dunes – The Hague Archeology i.c.w. ANW (Volunteers in Archeology) – we found among the Iron Age pottery shards a spinning whorl. I was allowed to loan 308-S75 for the residency (collection Archeology The Hague; in Dutch spintol of spinschijf), I aim to explore the notion of ‘re-use’ by using archeological artifacts (crumbs of Iron Age pottery shards from the coastal dunes near my hometown The Hague; donated by archeologists, too small to be of use for their research) as source material for clay bodies and celadon glazing.
In the process of firing these shards in the kiln, the shards revealed salt, like a glazing. An interesting conversation evolved, as – usually – archeological artifacts are not subjected to heat from a kiln. Geology meets archeology and an artistic perspective when discussing the possible origin or source of the salt. According to geologist Bert van der Valk and archeologist Mignonne Lenoir, indicating that during the Iron Age (2000+ YBP) the potters may have used local estuarine clay, or the pottery shards on location in The Hague dunes have for millennia been exposed to salt spray, due to the nearness of the North Sea.
residual intimacy
I started a Sphagnarium and brought it with me to ekwc, to continue exploring the notions of taking care for living Sphagnum mosses. Experimentally I discovered a kinship between different entities, which either repel or attract each other. I call this residual intimacy. Peat mosses, seaweeds, algae and biogenic earth materials, diatomaceous algae, kaolin or porcelain clay. Porcelain and paleontological fossils or archeological artifacts are generally regarded as something of value. What is the value of soil/Earth?
ziel
With the aim to re-construct a damaged fossil with fossil matter, I explored several techniques, like pressing or casting. Being inexperienced with casting, we made a mold of a cup with a ‘ziel’. In Dutch the word ‘ziel’ can refer to etherial, sediment collection point (onstoffelijk, verzamelplaats bezinksel). In English, wine bottles have a ‘punt’. I made several porcelain casting slips mixed with wild clays, mosses, seaweeds, algae and other biogenic earth materials…
I became quite addicted to the slow pace and delicacy of casting (my personal record is 30 seconds drying time before flipping the mold), and learned valuable tips and tricks from fellow resident Yoon Seok-hyeon.
aardtijd | foreshadowing | substance of shadow
An art work that is too vulnerable to touch, while seeking sensorial connections with soil/Earth.
While the exhibition of Soft Soils (unfired subsurface soils, part 4 of The becoming, The being & The meanwhile) became postponed due to COVID restrictions, aardtijd (2021) emerged. The work was in my studio and sunlight revealed a new notion, of foreshadowing. Subsurface soils that affect contemporary and future time. During my second artist-in-residency, we made a 3-d scan of this art work and a 3-d mold to explore different aspects of tactility, vulnerability (thinness) and the notion of untouchability (of the subsurface living climate archive) while mirroring the surface with the undersurface.
In addition to methods like pressing and casting, I explored ‘plembing‘, courtesy to fellow resident Anton Reijnders.
Inspiration, or conceptual point of departure:
One and three Chairs, Joseph Kosuth (1965). An object, an image, and a text. Every time this work is presented, it gains the year of the re-presentation.
In 2001, I added a fourth chair of emotion: ‘One and Four Chairs, 2001’. During my residency @ ekwc in 2021, I question validation and appropriations of art, heritage and climate change and made ‘One and All Chairs, 2021’:
One chair = 3900 gr = 20 dm3 wood
1 m3 wood = 1 ton CO2
Inspiration #2: ‘The Chamber of Marvels’, Jacqueline Heerema (2008-2009):
#1 The Naked Object; #2 The Talking Object; #3 Object Speed Dating and #4 Beyond the Object.
I studied Monumental Art and Environment at the Royal Academy of Art The Hague and Theoretical Museology at Leiden University. I am fascinated by the construction of ‘time’ and changing perceptions of value systems, which we often take for granted. I invented the concept of Innovatory Heritage, in which the understanding of heritage shifts from static/exclusive to dynamic/inclusive. I transformed a residential area into ‘Museum Oostwijk’ (2002-2009) and deconstructed institutional museology in ‘The Chamber of Marvels’ (2008-2009). See: http://www.jacquelineheerema.nl/reflectiewonderkamer.htm (Dutch only).
Polycyclic @ ekwc 2020 & 2021, to be continued….
Several conceptual layers emerged. Layer 1: image-source, source location (staged as natural but a human-induced landscape); 2: image object-source, found object (appropriated fossil, in context-landscape); 3: object-source, shape (3-d mould of fossil, replica); 4: object- source, material (grinding, mixing of fossil matter); 5: duplicated, artificial source-object (replica, imprint, casting with fossil matter); 6: hybrid composition: both natural and artifact (in situ-ex situ); 7: artifactual: not natural, of the nature of an artifact (in context, the arts); 8: loop back into the staged source-landscape (in context, index fossil of upcoming time).
Jacqueline Heerema 