Artist-Residence | Het Lage Noorden 2026
Part 2
Flexible
planning:
Nature
reserve, people, animals, objects,
exploring,
gathering new notes, bringing artworks
from the
studio (The Hague) to Het Lage Noorden,
with
the intention of introducing the works
to a
new environment and viewing myself as the initiator/facilitator/witness.
The
lived reality:
the
Wadden Sea region, while walking, on site,
with
people, through language, with animals, with objects, with plants,
Question:
What is the purpose of this stay?
What
is the purpose of the work?
What
does this require of me as a person and as an artist?
Photo:
Het lage Noorden
Unfinished
work brought along.
This
accordion-folded drawing was created
during
a previous art-residency in Andalusia in 2025.
Here in
Het Lage Noorden, it now lies draped over a drying rack.
I hang
the green bag in which the work was packed
on a
string that happened to be hanging there by chance.
After
a walk through the salt marshes
of the
Wadden Sea region,
I add
new sketch notes to these ‘Aide-Mémoires’.
Photo:
Maartje Meerman
(detail) Among the
sketch notes from other places
in
another time, there is now also a sketch made
with
Wadden clay (detail)
I
created a second sketch as an Aide-Mémoires
inspired
by bird footprints in the clay
and
mouse tracks in the grass.
Jeu
des Aide Mémoire
Stills
from a video in which I try to move
with
the accordion fold shape.
One
day, I tested this idea. A ‘Jeu de Aide
Mémoires’
I will File this
later under: aide_memoires_homo_ludens_erf
Drawing
brought along and hung in the project space of Lage Noorden
Breathe
in – breathe out 7-2020 - 2025
Filed under: aide_memoires_portrait_erf
In the
foreground (photo top right)
the cut-off section 7A of 7- 2020 – 2025
‘Held
in place’ by 2 work gloves and a piece of driftwood I found.
These
two pieces, 7 and 7A, were part of an installation in a display case in Berlin
in 2020, in a different form.
(See
the earlier installation: I FeMaler, Berlin 2020.htm)
Detail
7A-2020-2026
During
the walk through the salt marshes,
I
scraped some mud from the ground
and
carved lines into the clay with my knife.
One of the many bird found carcasses lying in the field.
A rhythmically pulsating
accumulation in one of the flowing streams.
The
sheep in the HLN yard (with their fur patterns)
An
online festival featuring
a
short video recorded at Het Lage Noorden.
‘Observers
dilemma’ (An attempt to be present yet
absent)
https://thesmallest.222lodge.nl
More animals in the
yard.
Patterns in the clay
of the salt marsh
The
rubber boots from Het Lage Noorden
were
hanging there, waiting to be used.
For example, as
“resting in place” holders for the still-wet clay paintings.
Or: In
a spontaneous moment of collaboration,
Katharina
Langer and we took the boots
out of
their waiting position and placed them in the space,
keeping
in mind the unpredictability of a flock of birds.
The
arrangement kept changing
due to
our interventions or something unforeseen.
Hanging on the
wire is a new work that is still unfamiliar to me.
Thinking
of flowing patterns, undulating formations, and half-decayed carcasses I saw
during
walks across the salt marshes of northern Friesland.
I added
patterns using salt marsh clay over the existing paint imprints.
This
work is going back to the studio in The Hague to enter the next phase.
I
painted the back with paint, marker, and oil pastel chalk.
The shirt_erf_line
A
final “ongoing” work that I brought
along
to explore this place,
I see
more as a growing collection
(of
wearable shirts)
with a
strong personal connection.
I
embellished one of the shirts
with a
Wadden-inspired pattern.
In
these photos, they’re hanging
on the
bookshelf at Het Lage Noorden;
they’ll
be given a permanent spot.
The shirt_erf_line collection
Came
about in a playful way.
I had
the first shirt printed with a car tire tread pattern
by the
artist Denis Oudendijk from The Hague during a
festival.
I then
further embellished the shirt
with
symbols and paint prints and wore it
during
Platforms Project in Athens in 2019.
I began
altering other white shirts.
But
after my son outgrew his white dress shirts
and
gave them to me, the collection grew.
He
wore these shirts professionally in the culinary world
(including
as a sommelier and later as a certified wine expert).
I wore
some of the altered shirts during performances
and
gave others away as gifts.
For
the past two years, the shirts have been available
for
purchase during special occasions.
In
Madrid in 2024, during the Hybrid Art Fair,
I
found the art fair’s venue suitable for displaying
and
offering the shirts as part of a site-specific installation.
At the
Petit Palace Sta. Barbara, over the course of 4 days, 2 et
The Ant Question
Finally,
everyone was given an archive box, which was returned once it had been
refilled.
For
more about “The Ant Question,” see the previous page. <<
These “ants” are
somewhere now.
At the
end of these four days, I gave the ants (explorers) shown above to the other
residents.
This
has happened quite often over the past few years.
I
collect photos of their new (temporary) homes.
Below
are photos of the ink-painted ants and their new locations.
The ant in this
photo by Connie Snoek is here.
The
ant in this photo by Katharina Langer is here.
Ant-story
To be continued…
Photos
by Ellen Rodenberg,
Unless
otherwise noted, such as:
Katharina Langer, Maartje Meerman,
Connie Snoek, Het Lage Noorden