Common Ground

Snæfell, a remote Icelandic mountain, is a magical and unique place. The kaleidoscopic skies above its peak and the constantly changing colors of the surrounding landscape make it a major and much photographed attraction. 'Skies over Snaefell', a light installation by Allard van Hoorn (1968, the Netherlands), represents these changing skies. A computer continuously trawling the Internet for images of Snæfell controls the installation’s iridescent globes in transient hues. The Internet images are indexed and software separates the skies from the mountain. Van Hoorn’s eerily beautiful work shows us the Internet-based abstract reality of the skies over Snæfell, which may be all that remains of it if our natural surroundings are not protected for posterity.

'Skies over Snaefell' came into being as a three-way collaboration between De Appel arts center, Amsterdam, the Mondriaan Fund and Van Hoorn.

Frank Haverman’s (1967, the Netherlands) studio for Architectural Art, Design and Urban Space makes strategic site-specific interventions through which the human body can relate to the outside world from within its own secure environment. In a world where everything is about efficiency, speed and standardization, Havermans delivers innovative solutions that cater both to the individual and to the collective. Commissioned by the AkzoNobel Art Foundation for the Art Space, ‘KAPKAR/ WS1P- AN’ redefines this communal area giving it new meaning. Executed with our coatings, Haverman’s installation represents a unique fusion of common and personal ground. Suspended between two pillars is a one-person workspace. A place of seclusion and shelter, yet in full view of and open to all. ‘KAPKAR/ WS1P- AN’ is truly a work place in the air.

Frank Havermans is an artist with a very diverse art practice. He combines the realization of large scale, architectural art works in public space that he calls Kapcar with study projects and reflections on urban space, named TOFUD (Temporary Office For Urban Space). According to Havermans, the city is not only the product of architects, urban designers, developers or politicians. Havermans’ city is an independent being that forms and transforms itself on its own. Over the years he investigated the secrets and complexities of urban structure in a series of drawings and objects that form an on-going project on the city.

‘Ponte de Villa du Gamek, Luanda, Angola’ by Lard Buurman (1969, the Netherlands) is from the series ‘Africa Junctions’, for which Buurman travelled to fourteen cities in twelve African countries over a period of six years (2008-2014). His aim: to capture and record the changing rhythms and informal, oftentimes chaotic, networks of African cities; places which remain largely ‘invisible’ to many Westerners. Buurman’s images form a cross between documentary and staged photography: the final image is recreated retrospectively in Buurman’s studio using multiple exposures taken from the same perspective. In times of increasing globalization and urbanization, Buurman hypothesizes that his work may “give us an idea about a possible future for our own cities.”

Gijs Frieling (1966, the Netherlands) is renowned for his vibrantly decorative immersive murals. Commissioned especially for the exhibition ‘Common Ground’, Frieling’s newest work entitled ‘Common Background’ is a vision of sublime and pristine beauty. Looking out from the shelter of a cool verdant grove, with only God’s creatures for company, the viewer’s gaze roams across a broad expanse of water before alighting upon distant snowcapped mountains. Pink-fringed clouds float gently above each of the mountain’s peaks, like wooly caps waiting to settle upon their craggy heads. Before we learn to read and write, arming ourselves with words as a means of navigating reality, “we do not perceive nature as a force distinct from ourselves,” says Frieling. This primal relationship between nature and mankind is our common background. It must be rekindled and nurtured. Frieling’s Arcadian vision appeals to the all too human desire of becoming re-rooted in, and being in harmony with, innocent nature. It forms a welcome respite from the realities of a world increasingly defined by digitalization, urbanization, globalization and concurrent feelings of detachment. 

‘Suntrap VIII’ by Esther Jiskoot (1963, the Netherlands) is part of a larger series of sculptures with which she seeks to capture the luminescent beauty of the sun’s rays. Rendered in a blaze of yellow, ‘Suntrap VIII’ bears witness to Jiskoot’s practice of integrating divergent materials with glass beads, which she strings on long threads before crocheting or knitting them into various forms. Titles are integral to Jiskoot’s work. They “form part of the sensory aspect thereof” she says, and also the key to understanding them. This work, resembling an old fashioned hunter’s trap, the ribs of which are formed by (or maybe infused with) rays of sunlight, embodies both the promise and impossibility of harnessing the power of one of nature’s most majestic natural resources: the sun.

‘Tatiana (Butterfly)’ by Hans Op de Beeck (1969, Belgium) is part of a series of life-sized sculptures with matt grey, concrete-like ‘skins’. This work, named after the little girl who stood model for it, evokes a sense of enchantment. Tatiana sits motionless with eyes closed. A butterfly has fluttered onto her outstretched index finger. Always keen to stimulate the viewer’s senses, Op de Beeck’s sculpture doesn’t return our gaze, forcing us to imagine what the girl is feeling. This serenely meditative work speaks to the poetics of small gestures, to the little things in life that form the singular focus of children but are so often overlooked in adulthood. ‘Tatiana (Butterfly)’ takes us back to the shared realm of childhood dreams.

'In de kamer’ by Helen Frik (1960, Great Britain) is made of alabaster. This translucent white stone is soft, enabling it to be easily carved and making it a popular material throughout history for sculpting decorative artifacts. However, its solubility in water makes it unsuitable for outdoor work. In an intriguing reversal of applications, Frik has transformed a stone used for indoor decoration into a homely shelter. A miniscule table and vase with a single flower can be made out in the stone’s snug interior. As the light fall changes, the room is intermittingly bathed in light shining through its alabaster walls. Frik’s work is a reminder of the beauty of our natural resources and of every human’s need for a place to shelter from the harsh realities of life.

Two small shoes lie slotted into the opening of a pair of old fashioned men’s lace-ups. The laces of the different sized ceramic shoes are co-joined, thus forging an inseparable bond between the two. Or as Ulrike Rehm (1976, Germany) puts it, “representing the male equivalent of the umbilical cord.” The title of this work is a direct reference to the shoe size of a father and to that of his child. Speaking to universal bonds of filial and parental love, safety, connection and the circle of life, this tactile and intimate piece takes us back to the common realm of childhood; to shared memories of balancing on a father’s feet before being danced around the room.

Since 2004, Charles Avery (1973, United Kingdom) has been working on ‘The Islanders’: his epic project devoted to mapping a fictitious island. Avery charts his imaginary world using all manner of media, developing a history, culture, belief system and society for it. At the heart of the Island lies the city Onomatopoeia. ‘Untitled (Tree No. 1 for the Jadingadendar)’, ripe with wax fruit hanging from its steel branches, is taken from Onomatopoeia’s municipal garden Jadingadendar in which the plants are all dead, the inhabitants of the Island having refuted nature. Alien yet strangely familiar, the world of ‘The Islanders’ is not utopian and functions as a mirror for our own society.

Since 2004, Charles Avery (1973, United Kingdom) has been working on ‘The Islanders’: his epic project devoted to mapping a fictitious island. Avery charts his imaginary world using all manner of media, developing a history, culture, belief system and society for it. At the heart of the Island lies the city Onomatopoeia.  ‘Untitled (Tree No. 1 for the Jadingadendar)’, ripe with wax fruit hanging from its steel branches, is taken from Onomatopoeia’s municipal garden Jadingadendar in which the plants are all dead, the inhabitants of the Island having refuted nature. Alien yet strangely familiar, the world of ‘The Islanders’ is not utopian and functions as a mirror for our own society.

Otobong Nkanga’s drawings, installations, photographs, sculptures and performances examine the social and topographical relationship with our everyday environment. By exploring the notion of land as a place of non-belonging, Nkanga provides an alternative meaning to the social ideas of identity. Paradoxically, she brings to light the memories and historical impacts provoked by humans and nature. She lays out the inherent complexities of resources like soil and earth and their potential values in order to provoke narratives and stories connected to land.

Employing sculpture, drawing and performance, but also writing, publishing and pedagogical formats, Nkanga looks at the notion of ‘land’ as a geological and discursive formation, often taking as her starting point the systems and procedures by which raw materials are locally dug up, technologically processed and globally circulated. From there she follows the threads that intertwine ores, material culture and the construction of desire with the redistribution of power and knowledge.

Nkanga raises questions about the historical structure of a place, both physically and metaphysically. She often refers to the different objects and elements in her work as constellations. Constellations are imaginary patterns or diagrams which allow her to chart the intersections of nature, politics, colonialist economies and different geographies and histories.

An abandoned coal silo encountered during a road trip through America formed the inspiration for 'Obsidian', a video installation by Agniet Snoep (1968, the Netherlands). Coal intrigues Snoep as tangible evidence of millions of years of life compressed in stone. Using the shiny black obsidian on the plinth in lieu of actual coal, Snoep set about mining this stone for its ‘memories’. One hundred and fifty compressed photographs of all three sides of the stone yielded razor sharp images onto which Snoep projected her conception of the stone’s inner life. The result: dreamlike sequences evoking feelings of loss, solitude, alienation and forsaken beauty, inspired by the final scene of John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ in which Eve, expelled from paradise declaims: “Elsewhere, everything seems desolate and inhospitable, unknown to us and unknown with us.”

A lump of ice nestles in a pair of cupped hands like a diamond in a padded jewelry box. An apt analogy given the project from which this work derives: the video installation 'Stones Against Diamonds' by filmmaker photographer Isaac Julien (1960, United Kingdom). Shot in a remote Icelandic glacier cave, 'Stones Against Diamonds' is inspired by a letter that Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi wrote to her husband. Turning conventional notions of beauty on their head, Bo Bardi stated her preference for the beauty of natural elements over that of diamonds. Photographed as the ice cave crumbled and melted as a result of global warming, this work is a reminder of the preciousness and vulnerability of nature.

Molten gold lies pooled on the ground. With this work, for which the standard gold bar forms the departure point, Sarah van Sonsbeeck (1976, the Netherlands) dispels negative associations commonly associated with spillage in a distinctly Duchampian manner. The investigation into the formal and conceptual qualities of gold forms a leitmotif in Van Sonsbeeck’s oeuvre. By ‘liberating’ one and a half standard gold bars from their man-made state, Van Sonsbeeck returns gold to its natural form, that of an ore, whilst dichotomously presenting it as a work of art, a commodity whose market worth is solely justified by its symbolic value.

This work, consisting of photographic images of matt stones against a glossy salmon pink background, stands in stark contrast to the infamous sharks and other, frequently grisly, objects suspended in formaldehyde for which bad boy of British art Damien Hirst (1964, United Kingdom) gained international acclaim. This work is one of Hirst’s first prints. Hirst found the stones on King’s Road, London and laid them on a sheet of pink paper in a form that reminded him of an illustration from a school geography textbook. The grid, used as a means for structuring and organizing images, became an important theme in much of Hirst’s later work.

In a departure from much of her earlier work focusing on human relationships and idiosyncrasies, this newest body of work by Karin Bos (1966, the Netherlands) gives precedence to nature and the great outdoors. In 2015, Bos traveled to Iceland. The series ‘Back to Base Camp’ is inspired by the breathtakingly beautiful landscapes she encountered during her journey. Wishing not only to document the unspoiled environment, Bos decided to ‘include’ the viewer in it. The names and GPS coordinates of the locations she visited are printed on the lines connecting the artworks, thus enabling viewers to follow in the artist’s footsteps. The works function as Bos’ artistic travel guide through the common ground of nature.

Ad Gerritsen’s (1940-2015, the Netherlands) work bears testimony to pre-conceived notions of ‘the other:’ colored by the exterior markings of race and creed, largely subjective and often unfounded. Gerritsen paints portraits. The images he creates present an unabridged, frequently confronting, version of reality. However, his work also brings hope. ‘Bonn Petersburg Kabul’ is based upon photographs of people from the named locations. Only a few of them are rendered in color, making it difficult to discern the ethnicity of the remaining silhouetted figures that meld anonymously into the depicted crowd. Gerritsen’s work serves as a reminder that we are not as different from each other as we may think and that humanity is the common ground that binds us.

‘Untitled (Orange Moon)’ is William Monk’s (1977, United Kingdom) psychedelic homage to landscape painting, nature, the heavens and to color itself - which he uses masterfully and to riveting effect. The viewer’s eye is drawn through a multi-colored field - of grain perhaps - towards a (not only orange-colored) glowing moon. The pointillist-like style in which the field is rendered and Monk’s use of contrasting enhancing colors speak to his engagement with the painterly tradition of the avant-garde – most notably Van Gogh, who referred to orange as “the color of insanity” - and their experiments with color theory. However, Monk is not so easily categorized. “I camouflage the content of my paintings,” he says. “I want to be cryptic.” Cryptic as he may be, Monk’s work is mesmerizingly beautiful and infinitely strange.

The diminutive size of this work by Shibu Natesan (1966, India) belies the stature of the man portrayed therein. ‘Gandhi’ forms part of a suite of paintings entitled ‘Missing’, realized during Natesan’s residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, in which he embraced photorealism for the first time. Often seeking inspiration for his work in photography, Natesan is not concerned with repainting photographs. For him, it is the process of painting itself, the re-working and slight manipulation of the source images, and the thoughts that arise from doing so that are important. Characterized by a dichotomous sense of directness and detachment, Natesan’s canvasses are not only a testimony to history. They draw the viewer in, and in the case of ‘Gandhi’ cause us to reflect upon the still relevant values for which Mahatma Gandhi stood: non-violence, respect and independence.

Pieter Paul Pothoven (1981, the Netherlands) engages with historical sites, resources and artifacts with a view to exploring their relationship to Western visual culture. These works are photographic prints of wafer thin slices of lapis lazuli: the precious blue mineral found in the remote Sar-i-Sang mines of Northern Afghanistan. This natural resource is used to produce ultramarine blue, the finest of blue pigments used in European painting before the introduction of synthetic ultramarine. Following in the footsteps of German geologist Karl Bückl - in 1936, the first person to have photographed lapis lazuli - Pothoven travelled to Afghanistan to map the source of this pigment. The resulting works, with titles reflecting the names given to the stones by their miners, represent the origin of coloration historically used in Western imagery and a geological footprint of the region from which the blue stone hails. 

‘Lost in Paradise’ by Renske van Enckevort (1985, the Netherlands) is a feast for the eye. Fleshy pink, egg yolk yellow, mauve, turquoise and various shades of orange, green and blue form a lyrical counterpoint to the darker colors defining the canvas’s lower right quadrant. The impression is that of a window looking out over a fantastical garden. In this work, Van Enckevort uses the medieval compositional device of the arch to direct the viewer’s gaze. The image is not Christian allegorical, but rather Van Enckevort’s rendition of a mutable, digitalized landscape. The arched window symbolizes the plethora of Internet windows we open daily, and through which we unthinkingly lose ourselves in paradise-like virtual worlds. ‘Lost in Paradise’ cautions us against disconnecting too much from the common ground of reality.

Maria Roosen's (1957, The Netherlands) 'Droomhuis' is made up of a number of free global forms on which the rough outlines of windows and doors have been applied. Encased in gold leaf, precious and pure, and as gently suggested by the title, this sculpture bears the idea of the ideal house: the bode of bliss. Roosen's work, which rose to prominence largely for her sensual glass sculptures, is sometimes described as a plea for the imagination in our world dominated by facts and practical usefulness. 

The title of this work, All Purpose Smile, by Esiri Erheriene-Essi (1982, United Kingdom) is as enigmatic as the facial expressions of the figures portrayed in it.  Erheriene-Essi is interested in images, objects and documents that allow her to examine individual and shared memories. Photographs featuring people who migrated to the West from Africa, Haiti and The Caribbean in the 60s, 70s and 80s in search of a better life, serve as source material for her paintings. A photograph of a Nigerian-British family taken in East London in the 70s formed the basis for All Purpose Smile. By adding the photograph, on top of the TV, of her own mother and uncles who migrated from Nigeria to London in the 70s and newspaper clippings from the same period, Erheriene-Essi weaves a complex web of historical narratives and hidden memories.

Erheriene-Essi graduated from the University of East London before completing a post-graduate residency at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited at various locations, including Museum Arnhem and Museum Het Dolhuys, Haarlem. Erheriene-Essi’s work is held in various public collections, including Fries Museum, Leeuwarden and in numerous private collections in the United States, Africa and Europe.    

The promise of shelter offered by the colorful tent at the center of this work by Maria Roosen (1957, the Netherlands) is illusionary. Roosen scaled down her old camping tent rendering it unsuitable for sleeping. It can only be reached after having navigated a collection of Roosen’s signature round-bellied glass pitchers that act as its anchors. Referring to her installations and glass sculptures as “tools for feeling,” Roosen seems with this work to be reflecting upon the hurdles that must oftentimes be overcome before a promise of shelter becomes reality.

Completed after he had become the first American President of African descent, Amsterdam based artist Ina van Zyl (1971, South Africa) has with 'Politician' depicted the inner strength of Barack Obama well before his move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Eyes downcast, arguably pondering the enormity of the task he has set himself, Obama exudes an aura of determined, quiet resolve. The saturated canvas densely covered from corner to corner with primarily dark colors and virtually bursting at the seams with Obama's face, heightens the monumentality and gravity of the image. Resembling in many aspects the iconic "Hope" poster that came to represent Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, Van Zyl's work speaks to the power of dreams and determination to bring about progress and change.

Jennifer Tee (1973, the Netherlands) is a Dutch artist of Chinese-Indonesian descent who engages with issues of cultural identity ina world in which disparate cultures are constantly overlapping and interacting, creating new and uncharted common ground. The jars with coiled ceramic cones entitled 'Heart Felt' call various images to mind, ranging from ice-cream cones to Egyptian urns used for carrying organs into the afterlife.

'Tampan', made entirely of dried and pressed tulip petals, is patterned after Tampan Sumatran Ship Cloths: woven cloths used for ritual occasions marking the passage of life. Tee's use of the tulip, iconic to Dutch culture but originally from Persia, in combination with Indonesian imagery speaks to modern-day complexities of migration and cultural identity.

Jennifer Tee (1973, the Netherlands) is a Dutch artist of Chinese-Indonesian descent who engages with issues of cultural identity in a world in which disparate cultures are constantly overlapping and interacting, creating new and uncharted common ground. The jars with coiled ceramic cones entitled ‘Heart Felt’ call various images to mind, ranging from ice-cream cones to Egyptian urns used for carrying organs into the afterlife. ‘Tampan’, made entirely of dried and pressed tulip petals, is patterned after Tampan Sumatran Ship Cloths: woven cloths used for ritual occasions marking the passage of life. Tee’s use of the tulip, iconic to Dutch culture but originally from Persia, in combination with Indonesian imagery speaks to modern-day complexities of migration and cultural identity.

Having emigrated from China to the Netherlands at the age of fourteen, Xiaoxiao Xu (1981, China) describes photography as the “antidote to the isolation she felt, and a way of defining herself intuitively without need for language.” An article in a Dutch newspaper, telling of residents from remote agricultural regions in China building homemade aircraft, formed the inspiration for her series ‘Aeronautics in the Backyard’. Xu travelled to China to record this absurd yet infinitely appealing phenomenon. The resulting images attest to beauty and humor in everyday life and leave room for the viewer to dream, just like the Chinese ‘aeronauts’ portrayed therein. 

Having emigrated from China to the Netherlands at the age of fourteen, Xiaoxiao Xu (1981, China) describes photography as the “antidote to the isolation she felt, and a way of defining herself intuitively without need for language.” An article in a Dutch newspaper, telling of residents from remote agricultural regions in China building homemade aircraft, formed the inspiration for her series ‘Aeronautics in the Backyard’. Xu travelled to China to record this absurd yet infinitely appealing phenomenon. The resulting images attest to beauty and humor in everyday life and leave room for the viewer to dream, just like the Chinese ‘aeronauts’ portrayed therein. 

Having emigrated from China to the Netherlands at the age of fourteen, Xiaoxiao Xu (1981, China) describes photography as the “antidote to the isolation she felt, and a way of defining herself intuitively without need for language.” An article in a Dutch newspaper, telling of residents from remote agricultural regions in China building homemade aircraft, formed the inspiration for her series ‘Aeronautics in the Backyard’. Xu travelled to China to record this absurd yet infinitely appealing phenomenon. The resulting images attest to beauty and humor in everyday life and leave room for the viewer to dream, just like the Chinese ‘aeronauts’ portrayed therein. 

Having emigrated from China to the Netherlands at the age of fourteen, Xiaoxiao Xu (1981, China) describes photography as the “antidote to the isolation she felt, and a way of defining herself intuitively without need for language.” An article in a Dutch newspaper, telling of residents from remote agricultural regions in China building homemade aircraft, formed the inspiration for her series ‘Aeronautics in the Backyard’. Xu travelled to China to record this absurd yet infinitely appealing phenomenon. The resulting images attest to beauty and humor in everyday life and leave room for the viewer to dream, just like the Chinese ‘aeronauts’ portrayed therein. 

Viewed from afar, the images Michael Wolf (1954-2019, Germany) created as part of his long-term project ‘Architectures of Density’ resemble abstract geometric grids. Moving closer, they emerge as gigantic tower blocks without any point of reference as to context or scale due to Wolf’s technique of cropping. Small enclaves of human intervention, dubbed ‘informal solutions’ by Wolf, appear in the concrete worlds of the mega cities that act as his muse. Pink rubber gloves hanging out to dry and chaotic mazes of plumbing and ventilator pipes, for instance, remind us of people’s ability and need to exert their individuality within cities’ concrete structures. 

‘The Sky River’ and ‘A Piece of the Sky’ by Amsterdam-based artist Sam Salehi Samiee (1988, Iran) are a celebration of nature’s elusive beauty. They also represent Samiee’s ongoing investigations into the ever-changing, fragmentary relationship between things – in this case the sky, a river and the reflection of the sky in the river. Inspired one day by the play of summer light on a canal outside his studio, Samiee reflected upon how to reproduce and capture a scene of such transient and abstract beauty. A scene that seemed as it were, “to be running away before his eyes.” The result: a synthesis of color, sky, water and the complex play of light on water. A tangible melding of fleeting phenomena to create a river that is sky and a piece of the sky you can take with you.

The titles of these works by Lennart Lahuis (1986, the Netherlands) are distinctly puzzling when compared to the corresponding images. Lahuis takes standard, oftentimes cliché, reproductions of images that come with store-bought picture frames as the starting point for his work. After transferring the stock image to a new carrier, Lahuis covers it with glass and paper rendered semi-transparent by the application of beeswax. By delaying the viewer’s access to the original picture and presenting the ‘filter’ as the image, Lahuis calls attention to media transparency and the interchangeability of images in Western visual culture.

The titles of these works by Lennart Lahuis (1986, the Netherlands) are distinctly puzzling when compared to the corresponding images. Lahuis takes standard, oftentimes cliché, reproductions of images that come with store-bought picture frames as the starting point for his work. After transferring the stock image to a new carrier, Lahuis covers it with glass and paper rendered semi-transparent by the application of beeswax. By delaying the viewer’s access to the original picture and presenting the ‘filter’ as the image, Lahuis calls attention to media transparency and the interchangeability of images in Western visual culture.

‘What Goes Up’ by Sylvie Zijlmans (1964, the Netherlands) triggers the response ‘must come down,’ thereby completing the saying from which the title of this work seemingly derives. The image accompanying this title is decidedly puzzling. Zijlmans’ meticulously staged photograph depicts an interior in which vertical streams of pink paint splash into (or maybe out of) a series of buckets and flowerpots arranged on the floor, calling to mind a ceiling that has sprung a serious leak. Yet the ceiling remains invisible due to Zijlmans’ technique of cropping thus hindering an unambiguous reading of the depicted scene. With this playful and enigmatic work, Zijlmans has constructed a world much like the one we live in: colorful, intriguing and often frankly confusing.

Niets in dit videokunstwerk van conceptueel kunstenaar Marcos Chaves (1961, Brazilië) is wat het lijkt. Dat is ook precies de bedoeling. Wat in eerste instantie een huilend gezicht lijkt te zijn (zeker in combinatie met de titel, ‘Cry me a River’) is in feite een afvoerbuis in een zwembad. Dit werk is typerend voor het creatieve proces van Chaves: alledaagse objecten die normaal gesproken niet opvallen, worden gecombineerd met verwarrende titels en krijgen zo op een ironische of humoristische manier een nieuwe betekenis. "Ik hoef de werkelijkheid niet in beelden te vangen, want de werkelijkheid bestaat al", aldus Chaves. "Ik probeer me alleen die werkelijkheid toe te eigenen om er kunst van te maken." Het werk van Chaves herinnert ons eraan dat je schoonheid en humor ook in alledaagse dingen kunt aantreffen, als je maar goed kijkt.

'Oculus' by Michael Jacklin (1956, the Netherlands) resembles an eye, but also calls planets orbiting our solar system to mind. Jacklin works almost exclusively with industrial rod iron lengths, which he cuts, bends and welds into abstract sculptures. His preference for this material stems from his fascination for iron structures in architecture and the rhythms he perceives in them. In defiance of the rigidity of his medium Jacklin’s sculptures appear airy and transparent, as if ‘drawn’ in space. A subtle play of lines and intervals occurs as you move around his work.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

With these works, Joris Geurts (1958, the Netherlands) engages with nature, combining colorful abstractions of its splendor with compositional references to the knots of a tree and the growth rings radiating from its core. The structure of wood is a recurrent theme in many of Geurts’ paintings from this period, and testifies to his experiments with woodprints on paper where attention focuses on the technique of transferring the shape and grain of the wood to the carrier. Working from a restful base color, Geurts applies the topcoat in more vibrant tones, picking out shapes to create depth, structure and the semblance of a cross-section of a tree. The result: a harmonious play of color, light and texture. These paintings are Geurts’ poetic celebration of the beauty of nature whose common domain we share and shape.

Pieter Paul Pothoven (181, the Netherlands) engages with historical sites, resources and artifacts with a view to exploring their relationship to Western visual culture. These works are photographic prints of wafer thin slices of lapis lazuli: the precious blue mineral found in the remote Sar-i-Sang mines of Northern Afghanistan. This natural resource is used to produce ultramarine blue, the finest of blue pigments used in European painting before the introduction of synthetic ultramarine. Following in the footsteps of German geologist Karl Bückl - in 1936, the first person to have photographed lapis lazuli - Pothoven travelled to Afghanistan to map the source of this pigment. The resulting works, with titles reflecting the names given to the stones by their miners, represent the origin of coloration historically used in Western imagery and a geological footprint of the region from which the blue stone hails.