Welcome to my blog about the collaborative project "becoming boulder / kei worden" with Dymph deWild. I'm very excited!
Between December 15 and 30, 2018 Dymph will be "artist-in-residence" in atelier H-ART in Wageningen, the Netherlands where I also have a space. I met Dymph around 2002 at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, DC, USA. We are both from the Netherlands, have travelled around and have lived in various places. She was working on her BFA, I was studio assistent and teaching in the Ceramics Department. In 2006 Dymph emigrated to the USA and settled in Virginia where she teaches at James Madison University. We stayed in touch. After 40+ years abroad I returned to the Netherlands In 2016 and settled in Wageningen, where I joined atelier H-ART. It's a small world...it turns out that Dymph's sister lives on the same street as I!! The inspiration for our project comes from the striking landscape along the banks of the river Nederrijn, and in particular the Wageningse Berg (Wageningen Mountain...lol...40 meters high). During the ice age, about 120,000 years ago, the deep, heavy Scandinavian gletchers reached Wageningen, creating "stuwwallen" (lateral moraine) by thrusting the earth in front of them. This process also created erratic boulders (zwerfkeien). We draw parallels between our own wanderings and the migration of these boulders, as well as the migrating masses of people all over the world. We will interpret elements of this landscape, using in particular river clay, sand, paper and whatever we will collect along the banks of the river Nederrijn. Exploring this specific local landscape we reinforce our kinship with the migratory boulders.