sedi | senti | ment @ ekwc 2020

Artist-in-residency June 11 – September 15, 2020 at Sundaymorning@ekwc,  the Dutch based centre-of-excellence for ceramics: European Ceramics Work Center
Open studio presentation during Test Case XXII @ ekwc on September 12 and 13, 2020.

Following the artist-in-residency in 2020 I developed Soft Soils, Part 4 of ‘The becoming, The being & The meanwhile’ in 2021.

re-cast as repository | residual intimacy
July 29 – Oct 20, 2021: 2nd artist-in-residency at Sundaymorning@ekwc with special thanks to Natural History Museum Rotterdam and Archeology The Hague i.c.w. AWN (Volunteers in Archeology), kindly supported by Stroom The Hague.


sedi | senti | ment


2020: introducing
North Sea Fossils Porcelain
North Sea Fossils Celadon
& North Sea Fossils Sigillata


North Sea Fossils Celadon on 3-d printed Fossils Porcelain, a Wilde Horse & Zandmotor, thanks to Fablab@EKWC

timescaping | matterscaping | landscaping | climatescaping


Challenged by the environmental impact of climate change and ongoing discourses about nature-culture, I tested during my artist-in-residency at Sundaymorning@ekwc my ability to develop a future hybrid material, in between a fossil (a natural phenomenon) and an artifact (a cultural phenomenon).
I noticed at the intersection of art, 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.  
Making use of my extensive archive I turned my studio into a laboratory of images and language, matter and shapes. With a focus on the future and inspired by old recipes I made together with FabLab@ekwc a 3-d mold of a fossil of a Wild Horse I had found at the Zandmotor just before my residency (dated approx. 40,000 years before present time, parallel with prehistoric cave drawings depicting Wild Horses). During 270 tests with Mammoth fossil fragments as working matter (dated approx. 25,000 – 50,000 years before present time, found at Zandmotor and donated by fossils collectors), I developed hybrid materials that I call North Sea Fossils Porcelain, – Celadon and – Sigillata and eventually successfully 3-d printed with fossil matter.
I developed a series of fossil fragments |ceramic shards and bring these back to the source: the ephemeral manmade coastal landscape of Zandmotor, North Sea.
With this project, I aim to draw attention to timescales of matter, like clay – the everyday working material of most ceramists – and perceptions of time, matter, landscapes and climate.

With special thanks to the team and advisors of Sundaymorning@ekwc, FabLab@ekwc, Marianne Peijnenburg – Rijksakademie, fossils collectors ZandmotorDick Mol, Henk Mulder, Bram Langeveld and Bert van der Valk (geologist, Deltares), AWN – Volunteers in Archeology The Hague & fellow artists-in-residence.


25.09.2020
timescaping
Residual – Time

Ingredients: North Sea Fossils Porcelain of Mammoth fossil fragments, dated 25,000 - 50,000 years before present time; scallop, shell, classified as Biota Animalia, animal; glazing, North Sea Fossils Sigillata. Shape: mould, 3-d scan of second phalange of a Wild Horse, dated 40,000 years before present time. Source-location Zandmotor - North Sea.
Ingredients: North Sea Fossils Porcelain of Mammoth fossil fragments, dated 25,000 – 50,000 years before present time; scallop, shell, classified as Biota Animalia, animal; glazing, North Sea Fossils Sigillata. Shape: mould, 3-d scan of second phalange of a Wild Horse, dated 40,000 years before present time. Source-location Zandmotor – North Sea.


in-between-ness
Hybrid index fossil shards – of – Upcoming time
in-between-ness of the natural phenomenon (of a fossil) and the cultural phenomenon (of an artifact)

22.09.2020 Back to the source-location Zandmotor - North Sea
22.09.2020 Back to the source-location Zandmotor – North Sea

Fossil fragment | ceramic shards
fossil fragments | ceramic shards

sedi | senti |ment


interspace, interstice, interval, in-between-ness …


narratives of pre-human nature meet the narratives of humanity


worldmaking


otherworldliness

Skiing the artificial slopes of porcelain clay at St. Austell, Cornwall UK, May 10 1971. Source: Nationaal Archief.
Skiing the artificial slopes of porcelain clay at St. Austell, Cornwall UK, May 10 1971. Source: Nationaal Archief.

..clay layer, a mute witness to global apocalypse..
Source: Timefulness – How thinking as a geologist can help save the world by Marcia Bjornerud, 2018 (page 55).


timescaping – matterscaping – landscaping – climatescaping


02.09.2020
landscaping – landschapvormend


Fossil fragments | ceramic shards
fossil fragments | ceramic shards

landscaping
“Every ton of useable china clay that was mined brought with it 5 tons of waste.”
Source: https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/industrial/china_clay.htm


corporeal – aards, stoffelijk

fossil fragments | ceramic shards

25.08.2020
climatescaping
weathering – verweren.

Exhale. Inhale. A kiln sucks out the moist of matter; once out of the kiln, the shell sucks in moist from the air and starts a poetic process of renewal, of forward recurrence of time. It lifts itself before it crumbles and deteriorates back to dust.
Exhale. Inhale. A kiln sucks out the moist of matter; once out of the kiln, the shell sucks in moist from the air and starts a poetic process of renewal, of forward recurrence of time. It lifts itself before it crumbles and deteriorates back to dust.

11.08.2020
Transient – Time

Ginkgo Biloba, considered to be a 'living fossil'. Term coined by Charles Darwin in 1859.
Ginkgo Biloba, considered to be a 'living fossil'. Term coined by Charles Darwin in 1859.
Ginkgo Biloba, considered to be a ‘living fossil’. Term coined by Charles Darwin in 1859.

10.08.2020
Divergent – Time

Vacuum canister to (try to) prevent recent test to suck in moist air & explode...
Vacuum canister to (try to) prevent recent test to suck in moist air & explode…

03.08.2020
Conversation – with – Time

Conversation - with - Time

23.07.2020
matterscaping
Ambiguity – of – Time

North Sea Fossils Celadon glazing
North Sea Fossils Celadon glazing
multiple matters
multiple matters
North Sea Fossils matter
North Sea Fossils matter

20.07.2020
matterscaping
Ingredients – of – Time

Ingredients of Time

15.07.2020
Testing – climatescaping

climatescaping

20.06.2020
Multiple – Time

multiple time

09.06.2020
Relative locality – in – Time

Pangea. Theory of plate tectonic since the early 1960s of moving, drifting, shifting of continents over time. Questioning In Situ – Ex Situ localities.

Unfired Till (Keileem). 
Deposited in - what we now call - The Netherlands during the last ice age some 10,000 years ago.
Unfired Till (Keileem).
Deposited in – what we now call – The Netherlands during the last ice age some 10,000 years ago.

17.06.2020
7 shades of fossil

destructive research
destructive research

12.06.2020
narratives of pre-human nature meet the narratives of humanity
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – meets – Paleontology & Humanity
40,000 years – present time

3-d scan of fossil, second phalange of Wild Horse, thanks to FabLab @EKWC.
3-d scan of fossil, second phalange of Wild Horse, thanks to FabLab @EKWC.

08.06.2020
Found a fossil today at Zandmotor. Wonder what it is? A phalange of a…?

09062020: According to Dick Mol: " This most resembles a second phalange, of the toe of a Wild Horse. Seems to be about 40,000 years old. From the ice age." 
Prehistoric cave drawings depict wild horses, some 15,000 - 39,000 years ago.
09062020: According to Dick Mol: ” This most resembles a second phalange, of the toe of a Wild Horse. Seems to be about 40,000 years old. From the ice age.”
Prehistoric cave drawings depict wild horses, some 15,000 – 39,000 years ago.

See more about fossils and/or artifacts

Personal reference collection of fossils and/or artifacts
Personal reference collection of fossils and/or artifacts

23.05.2020
Time – over – Time

Experiment; in context, not In Situ but Ex Situ.
Experiment; in context, not In Situ but Ex Situ.

See more about scallops, in viva


In context: Zandmotor, where narratives of pre-human nature meet the narratives of humanity. Zandmotor did not exists and will ‘dissolve’.
A ‘mare incognita’, unchartered and ephemeral new land in/of the sea.
A void as source of inspiration.
Read more, the essay I wrote called ‘Pioneering Zandmotor’, 2019.

Image: Zandmotor, photo Jacqueline Heerema.
Image: Zandmotor, photo Jacqueline Heerema.

See more about Zandmotor
As part of my artistic practice I co-founded in 2006 as artist-curator the artists collective Satellietgroep. Since 2014 Satellietgroep explores the Zandmotor as cultural phenomenon.


Inspiration:
As a teenager I was fascinated by a photo of a moving rock, published in an edition of National Geographic Magazine (if I remember correctly). And that there was a myth surrounding these rocks. Nobody knew how or why they could move…
So the first time I traveled to the United Stated, I wanted to see this natural phenomenon with my own eyes and ‘Racetrack Valley in Death Valley’ became my destination. However, it proved out of reach for a ‘touristic visit’, so the myth and speculations continued… until recently.
But the seed was planted for my artistic practice, and I am still wondering how we perceive, interpret and represent the world around us.

Sailing stones, also known as sliding rocks, walking rocks, rolling stones, moving rocks or wandering rocks. Racetrack Playa, Death Valley. California.

Image: Mike Reyfman. mikereyfman.com
Image: Mike Reyfman. mikereyfman.com
Uncovering the myth. Link: http://www.sci-news.com/physics/science-death-valley-sailing-stones-02148.html
Uncovering the myth. Link: http://www.sci-news.com/physics/science-death-valley-sailing-stones-02148.html


Inspiration #2
Le Songe d’un Promeneur, 2002.
In 2002 I was artist-in-residence at Le Pommerie, Saint Setiers, France icw Département de Porcelain, L’ENAD – Ecole National d’Art, Limoges, France.


Inspiration #3
Aardse Zaken, Questions Terrestres, 2001.
In 2001 I was artist-in-residence for Transhumance at Lavalette, Auvergne, France.