Night at the Museum

Even more thrilling than Ben Stiller's Night at the Museum (I fell asleep while watching..) is the annual Rotterdam Museum Night. Tomorrow no less than 46 museums and galleries in Rotterdam are open till the wee hours (2.00) as they put up special installations, events, live bands en parties. A great chance to check out the Custom and Tax Museum, the Museum of Chess Pieces (huh?) or the Feyenoord Museum (located in stadium De Kuip), just to name a few.

But why not seize the opportunity to visit kids museum Villa Zebra with no kids there?! Besides their excellent current exhibition they've got workshops and performances by actors from theater company Jeugdtheater Hofplein. The festival and Villa Zebra are both celebrating their 10th birthday, so all the reasons to party twice as hard. That's why yours truly will play the best songs of the last decade. Hop on the special Museum Night bus or boat and come to Rotterdam's most fun museum! It's going to be a looooooong night!

*FREEBIE ALERT*
We've got special (digital) vouchers to give away for those of you who would like to visit Villa Zebra tomorrow. With this voucher you'll get FREE entrance!! Interested? Email us at info [@] dutchdolls [.]nl. Please note, this is for Villa Zebra only, you'll need a passe-partout to visit the other participating museums. These will be for sale at Villa Zebra (€17,50) (buy tickets in advance for €13,50 here).

New Relics

This weekend Rotterdam is all about art; museumnight is an annual event that turns the whole town upside down. Performances, live music and lots of artsy stuff all over the place!

All the established and not so established galleries, ateliers and museums make sure they have something special planned for this night. And so does Gallery Blaak 10 with their exhibition New Relics that opens this thursday at 19.00h.

This group show is all about new works of none other than Silas (Antistrot, Machinegewehr, Viper Cobra), Eelco van den Berg and newcomers Sober Industries. This will be the perfect pre-party for museumnight with music, beers, art and good company!

Check flyer for info.

Fabulous Faces

Puberty. It seems so long ago for me, luckily I get to be in touch with that old feeling on a regular base.

These past two months I got in touch by developing and teaching a nine week 'artshot' at Zadkine, a vocational school in Rotterdam. Which basically meant that I had to create portraits with a group of twenty reluctant teens and young adults that really don't want to be there. But they have to be, or they will not get their much needed certificate and points. Keep in mind that none of them take (or have ever taken) artclasses, and hardly anyone had ever been to a museum!!

In reality we had a really good time. We played our favorite tunes every time we got together, and they got to bring their own Ipods and Iphones and they made some really great stuff while we listened to some raggaeton, Drake, kuduro and more reggaeton. Today was the day of the presentation and up to just now I hadn't seen their final projects. But I'm kinda proud.

I want to share with you some of the highlights, take a look!!

Throw that Curve Ball in my direction!

December last year, I got a phone call of a certain drummer of a certain band. I had no clue who they were, but I thought the bandname was pretty cool. Which is like meeting someone with nice shoes.. a good first impression. And so I agreed to meet with them to talk about art for an album cover. A few Mb (make that Gb) later here it is: The cover for Baby, It's A face by Bombay Show Pig. All shiny and nicely printed by the polish people. Oh how good it feels to hold this in my hands!
I'm not going to post a song from the EP on here, but I will give you this one: a club-worthy remix with a funky wobble. Done by FretHinge who obviously, know how to party. More distortion!

Bombay Show Pig - Curve Ball (FretHinge rmx) get it here (YSI)

Ladies First!

This friday the 27th will be the opening of the groupshow Ladies First at Lev Kaupas, Amsterdam. It will be no surprise that all participants will be female even though their is work surprisingly un-female! Expect drawings, screenprints, performances, food-art, 3d objects and more... I have made a couple of new drawings with an odd theme and a really tiny pen. The work will be on exhibition for a month, but the opening will be extra special. You will be entertained by all female DJ's and dancers, but men are more than welcome ;-) It'll be a night to remember!

Oh, and if you want to come: send an email to the adres at the bottom of the flyer, the opening will be on invite only!

In The Flesh

When I was asked to put a groupshow together at projectspace Dek 22 I thought: 'ow jeez, WHEN am I going to do this?'. Then I thought: 'kinda cool'. One hour later all the participants were chosen, called and confirmed... 'WOW'.

The exhibitants are Marie Civikov, Wietse Eeken and Niek Westendorp and all three are very gifted and very cool. Marie makes huge paintings with bright colors and shocking images. She's got a very original and personal style of painting that I really like. Wietse makes big objects out of stone that are very raw and very in your face. They are so big and heavy that he needs a big truck with a lift to get his stuff from one place to another. Niek is an incredible painter that makes collage-style work. He paints layer on top of layer creating very intriguing sometimes scary images.

To make the flesh move, there will be music by me and the wonderful DJ Miss Delicious followed by a live show of J.C. Thomas & The Missing Slippers. Hope to see you there!

Thursday april 29th, 18.00-22.00u, Willem Buytewechstraat 22, Rotterdam

One week later, during the In The Flesh exhibit, the very talented fashion designer Daisy Kroon will open the fashion exhibition Skin, Skinner, Skinniest.

This will be a one night event with chocolate sneakers, skin-toned dresses, a pop-up closet and more. Sounds cool? Make sure you visit Dek 22 on friday may 7th at 19.30.

3月6日（土）から静岡にてエキシビションスタート!!!

It's a dream come true: my work is going to JAPAN!! (I would love to go with it, but alas...) It is part of the exhibition Grow Ups, which opens this Saturday, March 6 in the Center for Creative Communications in Shizuoka.

The exhibition is curated by Renée Reijnders, who initially put the show together for the gallery Corrosia!, Almere in 2008. On invitation of CCC the exhibition is now traveling to Japan.

As title Grow Ups suggests the works maneuver between mature art and childlike fantasy. The other participating artists are IRIS, Merijn Hos, Lennard Schuurmans, Pepijn van den Nieuwendijk, Ingrid de Lugt, Wayne Horse, Mark Verhaagen, Leendert Masselink, Bjorn Eulink and Manumanu. Since you're probably unable to attend the exhibition in Japan, I suggest you take a look at the websites of the participating artists to get an impression of what a great show this is going to be!

Slightly Surreal

What to do on a (rainy) Sunday after one of the best nights out you ever experienced in your life?? That was exactly my question the day after the Warehouse Project in Manchester...

Well, after a sturdy breakfast of scrambled eggs, coffee and freshly squeezed OJ my boyfriend and I decided to drag ourselves to the Manchester Art Gallery for the exhibition Angels of Anarchy - Women Artists and Surrealism. They had great works on display by a.o. Francesca Woodman, Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim. But my heart truly skipped a beat when I saw some collaborative pieces. They were made along the same principle as our drawings for the Freikörperkult t-shirts! I had never seen these before.

Y. Tanguy, Joan Miro, Max Morix and Man Ray (1927).

Andre Breton, Jacqueline Lamba and Yves Tanguy (1938).

Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, Nusch Eluard and Valentine Hugo (ca. 1930).

Andre Breton, Valentine Hugo, Greta Knutson and Tristan Tzara (ca. 1933).

I didn't know this 'game' had a name. It's called EXQUISITE CORPSE. The Surrealists used to play it with words as well, and exquisite corpse is taken from the first sentence that was produced this way: "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.", which translates to "The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine."

The title of our t-shirts was sort of randomly picked after one of our favourite German words: Freikörperkultur, roughly translated as Free Body Movement, which advocates a naturistic/nudist way of life. We encountered the Freikörperkultur up close and personal at the swimming pool in Berlin this summer. The word suited our drawings perfectly, especially when we shortened it to -kult.

Anyways, I just thought it was so cool to see these drawings that I wanted to share them with you. I now know our drawings aren't just weird, no, they are Surreal!

Ladies first, then Staedtlers.

This blogpost is not about informing you that I have an exhibition coming up in Amsterdam on november 27th, with some very cool ladies.. Nono, it's about my love for the Staedtler 0.1 and 0.05mm.

I don't know if any of you ever experienced this, but personally I'm very VERY supersticious when it comes to drawing, and my pen of choice. Besides the music that should exactly fit my mood of that moment, I am absolutely convinced that some pens or pencils have a wrong vibe. They make my drawing come out all ugly. Which is of course frustrating, but also good, I can always blame the pen. Recently I go hand-in-hand with my Staedtlers. They are THE pens of the moment. I think everybody should get one.

Not convinced? Come to our capital city next friday the 27th and see what my Staedtlers can do. Besides my drawings, I think this exhibition will be awesome considering the coolness of the other participants. Ephameron, Bitches in Control, Moama, Lil'Shy, Ovni and Minivila will definately bring some streetwise visual spectacle.
Check out the flyer for details.

Puberty rocked the cardboard!

Eleven weeks, 700 students, 9 teachers, an empty gym (not so empty now), 600 cardboards, miles and miles of tape makes a huge piece of art!

As you may have read in the blogpost of 30 september, I was part of an artist collective that was responsable for writing and teaching an educational program for 700 adolescent students. The program was part of Blurrr in exhibition space for contemporary art TENT. Together with Judith Vorwerk, S.P.A.M. van Griensven, Maartje Aben, Ivo Vrouwe en Olivier Otten, we came up with the idea of Wildgroei. Which basicly means; out of control stuff!

The assignment was for the students to leave themselves behind in the former gym of the building, using only cardboard and tape. Explaining this, they would look at you as if something green was dripping out of your mouth. But then the ideas would start to come, and evolve and boy did we have fun with it! I have seen kings, racecars, lots of dreadlocks, a big booty, a black cat with very suspicious looks, a huge hamburger, loads and loads of cellphones, lots of Iceberg clothes out of paper (?), uggs, a DJ booth, skateboarders, punkers and whatnot?! Today was the last day of Wildgroei and I think that we succeeded! The gym is packed, and by the hugeness, you can tell that a large amount of kids were part of it! Below you can check out some of the highlights of the project and here you can watch a timelapsemovie of the whole thing, made by Olivier Otten. Well done all of you!

Dust Off

When Nanna and me were at some opening in some gallery, we ran into our old teacher of the Art Academy. In between sipping cheap wine and nibbling euroshopper nuts she asked us if we wanted to submit an idea for the next project week called Slow-Lab which focussed on old techniques and handwork. There was nothing slow about the whole thing cause we had to submit the idea practically within the hour. But we pulled it off and called our project: Dust Off

The idea was to let the students take a look in their grandma's attic, the dusty drawer, or to let them go to the thriftstore to find something old and forgotten. They had to let that object be an inspiration for something new using various techniques. Because this assignment was pretty vague we made them take a look at some wonderful artwork done by Merel Karhof, Sarah Illenberger and Richard Saja. They master this dusting off thing!

I have to say, the students went all out! I've had an awesome and inspriational week and have never seen such a hardworking group. Most of the participants used techniques that they'd never used before, and I really respect that. Unfortunately I couldn't put everone's work up here, but only a small selection.

Merel de Graaf - Embroidered family portraits

Ming Ho - Screenprinted Puzzle

Sharon van Wijngaarden and Ingrid Wuyster
Screenprinted educational illustration

Nancy de Wit and Sjoerd Bongertman
(puff)screenprinted scarf 'mink'

Monsters on my mind..

For the past couple of months I was a coach. Not sports related (I have NO tactics) but art related.



Rotterdam kids' museum Villa Zebra planned to have an exhibition called 'The Monsterfactory'. Among the work of several established artists they wanted to involve students of the illustration department from the local artschool. Students could pitch an idea and get a spot among the monsters. I was there for the technical sollutions and to help the raw ideas grow into exhibition-worthy work. That was fun! It was really inspirational to work with these people and I think that the endresult is something we can all be proud of! Have a little sneak-peek below. (Work: Ron Schuijt)


Next friday (september 18th), will be the grand opening. From 13.30 you can come and see the endresult. And if you're a kid, you can take a monster related workshop. This will be fun, no doubt.

Villa Zebra, Stieltjesstraat 21, Rotterdam

homo universalis 2.0. in a TENT.....

It all goes down at the Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam this week! Tomorrow is the opening of BLURRR in exhibition space for contemporary art TENT. It's a very special exhibition/event to celebrate TENT's 10th birthday. Hurray!

BLURRR (excuse me while I quote from the website) "reveals a new cultural practice in which the young artist goes beyond the borders of different disciplines and presents him/herself as homo universalis 2.0. (...) Thanks to the possibilities of the Internet, it seems that multitasking has become the most important basis for the practice of art without being noticed. Artists are simultaneously a performer, singer or designer. They work alternately in collectives, duos and groups. They share their knowledge or work on social network sites such as Facebook, Hyves or MySpace and assign the public an active role in their work." Sounds kind of familiar?! That's why TENT approached Dutch Dolls to take part in the large-scale educational project that accompanies the exhibition.

The educational project is named 'Wildgroei' ('proliferation') and is organized by an occasional artist collective, consisting of S.P.A.M. van Griensven, Selfcontrolfreak, Ivo Vrouwe and Maartje Aben and Dutch Dolls' own Geeske. From the 9th of September till the 15th of November high school students will work with the collective on an installation. Every move is being monitored by a camera, so you can keep track of the whole thing (somewhere) online.

Anyways, come to the opening tomorrow at 18.00 to enjoy performances by the HuMobisten and Nina Boas, music, drinks and food (by Hete Bliksem!)! Or take a look at the Wildgroei in progress sometime during the Wereld van de Witte de With Festival.