ZELF again

Today kids museum Villa Zebra sent me some really nice pictures of their semi-permanent exhibition ZELF! The exhibition consists of six interactive art installations that are tucked away in a big box. By opening one or more doors these installations are revealed and 3-6 year olds can get their hands dirty (metaphorically speaking). Together with Renée Reijnders and Geeske de Graaff I created a hospital where kids can construct new human beings with the fabric body parts. 

The only time I've seen the exhibition was when it was heaving with kids. Which is how it should be of course. But it is nice to see it in a serene setting - it will probably never be as peaceful again as in this photo shoot...

 

 ∧ The installation next to us is by famous children's book illustrator Thé Tjong-Khing. I'm absolutely thrilled my work is exhibited next to his; he is one of my heroes!! 

Photos by Hester Blankenstijn and Mike Bink.

Dogs on show

Totally forgot to mention it here on my blog, but in their quest for new sub-urban owners my dyed show dogs have traveled to Almere and Lelystad this December! They'll be for sale during the Kerst & Carry exhibitions, where you can buy perfect Christmas gifts from young designers and artists. Everything is hand picked by curator Renée Reijnders, so you know there'll be quality stuff. For more information on directions and opening hours visit the Corrosia! website.

 

If you haven't seen any pictures of this dyeing dog craze, have look here or here or here (I tried drawing the Chow Chow that looks like a panda, but it just looked like a panda!).

Do It Yourzelf!

Tomorrow the semi-permanent exhibition ZELF! opens in Villa Zebra, Rotterdam!! The exhibition consists of six art installations that have been created specifically for 3-6 year olds. One of the installations is a little hospital where kids can create new human beings with the (fabric) body parts I made together with Renée Reijnders and Geeske de Graaff. The way the exhibition space is designed is a work of art in itself, so you should really go and take a look! You can either go to the opening at 10.00 and have coffee and cake, or at 17.00 if you fancy a drink and a snack.

Happening Haarzuilens

My friend Renée and I were working together at here place in Utrecht today, when we needed an extended break around lunch time. As we had some wheels to our disposal Renée decided this was a good opportunity to take me to the nearby village of Haarzuilens.

It's a pretty little village; it consists of nothing more than a castle, a few neighboring houses, a couple of restaurants (I'm sure they all serve pancakes), a common ground and a bus stop. The houses all have wooden doors and shutters, which are painted in the colors of castle: red and white. 

Nothing ever happens in Haarzuilens, it's a sleepy town. Expect on Wednesday afternoon! When the local charity shop Emmaus opens its doors at 1 pm promptly!! The only parking lot in the village fills up quickly with scavengers from all over the region and queues form in front of the several buildings (yes there are separate buildings for the 2nd hand furniture, clothing and books, records, lamps and kitchenware!). As Renée said: "It's an event". There is even a little coffee shop and a Vietnamese guy who sells spring rolls, soups, and excellent fries from his van (I know they were excellent because I had some. With frietsaus - a creamier version of mayonnaise). 

I wondered why there's this huge charity shop in a tiny, fairly posh village. So I did some research and turns out the shop came to existence in Haarzuilens after the founder of the Emmaus charity, the Frenchman Abbé Pierre, had incidentally met the duchess of Van Zuylen Van Nijevelt. She offered him the use of part of the castle grounds. And so the charity for the homeless and the poor started operating from one of the pigsties in 1966. Up until this day people live on the grounds and the community runs the shop. 

If you ever fancy going, here's the address: Eikstraat 14, 3455 SJ, Haarzuilens. Open every Wednesday 13.00-16.00 and every last Saturday of the month 11.00-13.00. Who knows what you will find...

 

∧ I was so tempted to buy this dispenser, but it was so dirty I was afraid to touch it. I didn't dare open it to see what the inside was like. The outside didn't look promising (the picture doesn't do the smudge justice at all!!).

∧ Another item I left with pain in my heart. But it just had too many scratches.

 

 ∧ Kitchenalia a plentyful.

 

∧ No idea what this was. It looked like a Sinterklaas sleeping bag. 

Or may be it was an all-in-one suit?? 

I scored some awesome cookie moulds for baking speculaas, a Dutch cookie with lots of spices that traditionally is eaten during the Sinterklaas festivities early December (I promise to blog about this Sinterklaas character later!)

And I got myself some bright mint green lace ups! How cool are these?! ∨

Another day at the office

 

I'm knee deep in embroidering and sewing for a project for children's museum Villa Zebra in Rotterdam. A few years back I made, together with Geeske de Graaff, life sized body parts from fabric for the exhibition Completely broken at Villa Zebra. The kids could put the body parts together with poppers to create new human beings, ANY WAY they wanted to. The cool thing about the body parts was that there was something 'wrong' with all  of them: one is cross eyed, another one has pimples, another braces. Some limbs have wounds or are broken, there's a beer-belly, a leg with varix, a foot with six toes, and so on.

Now the dolls are going to be part of a semi-permanent exhibition at the museum. Therefore they first needed a good wash because they were dirty. Very dirty.

 

Pretty disgusting, innit?!  

Some of the dolls need to be repaired. Especially the felt we used became a bit rough after being handled by hundreds if not thousands of little hands.

Villa Zebra also commissioned some new body parts, which I'm creating with my friend Renée Reijnders. This baby in distress will be added to the collection, along with a dog with 5 legs, a trunk with an 'outie' bellybutton, the arm of a very clumsy painter and more. Grand opening will be at the end of November!