- Stedelijk Museum - ART AND COUNTERCULTURE 1967-1970
the exhibit was presents Amsterdam as a laboratory for artistic and social innovation. - ,The “Magical centre Amsterdam”, to use the words of artist Robert Jasper Grootveld, a member of the Provo movement, reaches its zenith between 1967 and 1970. By which time, Amsterdam has won itself a reputation as a city where anything goes. The Dutch capital flourishes as a progressive and artistic haven, a place that attracts hordes of young people from all over the world. It’s also a time when art is in the throes of change. Artists rebel against the establishment and seek alternative, new platforms: on the streets, in magazines or on TV. Idea begins to take precedence over (the traditional) form – art can be a happening, an intervention in the city, or anything was possible,'I think perhaps this pursuit of creative activism is something that has influenced Peter and Hildah I think perhaps these values lie at the very core of the Handshake project?
- The work titled Continuous Drawings was of interest to me incorporating the community and environment in a really incredible way. Briefly described it was a collaborative public performance Where in 1966 Dutch artist Tjebbe van Tijen and a small group attempted to draw a continuous chalk line from the Institute for Contemporary Art in London to Rotterdanm in the Netherlands. However the line disappeared when van Tijen and a friend were arrested by London police for refusing to clean the pavement of the drawing. Eventually the line was to reappear at the airport continuing over people and their luggage and on to a flight to Schiphol, There it wound on through customs and over a number of taxis, until the drawing arrived at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. It sprawled across the entrance ,halls and stairways, and with the help of a cherry picker the line carried on into the streets growing through the city to final reach its end Point at Rotterdam.
Another point of interest for me was the show Stedelijk base, a permanent installation of iconic works by influential artists consisting of over 700 pieces displayed in historical, social groupings in particular
The necklace by Ted Noten Tactile pieces 2-Moscow as it examines the idea of a souvenir but also of a sort of melancholy to recall perhaps a not so wonderful time through objects. This particular necklace is made of a crucifix a Mercedes emblem a signet ring painted day glow yellow military looking pouch.
A forty-two-day railway journey from China to Moscow provided the materials for Notens global tactile pieces, aiming to capture the mood of alienation he experienced after many days in the same rickety railway carriage, Noten bought objects at every stop on route without any premeditated plan. He also exchanged possessions with other passengers of which he later altered joined and fabricated to make a series of large neck pieces. A clever way of conducting research and blurring the lines between souvenir and meaningful cultural artefacts.
The necklace by Ted Noten Tactile pieces 2-Moscow as it examines the idea of a souvenir but also of a sort of melancholy to recall perhaps a not so wonderful time through objects. This particular necklace is made of a crucifix a Mercedes emblem a signet ring painted day glow yellow military looking pouch.
A forty-two-day railway journey from China to Moscow provided the materials for Notens global tactile pieces, aiming to capture the mood of alienation he experienced after many days in the same rickety railway carriage, Noten bought objects at every stop on route without any premeditated plan. He also exchanged possessions with other passengers of which he later altered joined and fabricated to make a series of large neck pieces. A clever way of conducting research and blurring the lines between souvenir and meaningful cultural artefacts.
Other work which captured my attention was The artist Ferdi Tajiri's Hortiscuplture these large scale brightly colored sculptures used nature as a sexual metaphor these pieces express much of what the art and counterculture exhibit was about and this work has become iconic its expression of the female body and space in the world.Interestingly Ferdi began her career as a jeweller making welded frame like pieces which in time morphed into large scale frames that give structure to her horisculpture works. I found this quote on a website which offers a different perspective on the wearing of jewellery. "When a woman wears my jewellery she is reserved. When I wear it, I isolate myself, which I like. It must be a wonderful feeling for every woman, even if you’re beautifully made-up, to keep others at a distance through your jewellery - then people can see you.” - Ferdi, 1955
- Van gogh Museum, I enjoyed sseing goghs works in the flesh but the take away for me was
IJohn Chamberlain s sculptural work and learning that Vangogh had influenced him greatly in his practice...freedom with expression through paint is mirrored in his powerful and and evocitve sculptures.
