Hill of beans - End project during Harvest Fest

'Hill of beans'-carpet

After selecting, sowing, watching the beans grow and harvesting, it was time to reap what I sowed.

Early morning, at 8, I arrived at De Kapeltuin. It was cold, but the Sun was shining. In my corner under the Sweet Chestnut I started preparing myself and the ground. With the spider spinning her web that week in front of my window in mind, I started laying the beans. 

Beans are bigger and therefor you can make a bigger carpet, but because you have to lay each single bean (rice you can sprinkle) it takes more time.

I never worked with just beans, and my plan was to use all seed-saved beans in the carpet. The other beans I used to make jewelry and little packets for dried beans to eat.

Making the carpet, photo by Marlies Hermans

After two hours making my beancarpet was complete. Small, but with every bean used and with an interesting end-form. Somewhere between a spiderweb, sunflower and wind-rose.

In my plot and the rest of De Kapeltuin I made a photo-exhibition. I made little booklets of the transformation of my 'Hill of beans' plot and my (Instagram) beanfies. On my 'bicycle-wheel-on-stake' were pictures of how the bicycle wheel got overgrown by the Runner beans. So between the last ripening pods, the visitors could see the growing of the beans.

In the garden I extended the exhibition I made during the Kunstroute Haagse Beemden. Photos of the history, the oldest from beginning 1900, the most recent from a few weeks before, were placed in the garden where they could be viewed with the same location today in one frame.

These historical pictures together with the pieces of history every visitor got when they took a bean (or packet or earring) from my carpet, told the whole story of De Kapeltuin. The little pieces of history had on one side a date in time with a little information and on the other side information about beans like the beans I used for my project and favorite bean-recipes of Kapeltuin-volunteers.

The bean in this way was not only a bean to sow or eat (or wear), but a bean that hold a part of history of the place were it was harvest, and everyone together, the whole carpet, told the whole story. So in this way you learn more by sharing. Which for me was a key part of the story of De Kapeltuin. A rough grassland in time turned into a community garden by a group of volunteers in which sharing is the main goal. Not only sharing of harvest, but of a place to enjoy, together or alone by everyone in the neighborhood. 

View on my 'Hill of beans' plot, a little booklet showed all the views from Januari

Morning Sun on my bean-carpet

Visitors "shopping" seeds, herbs, beans and jewelry from my plot

Photo by Emile Waagenaar

Overview Kapeltuin

Photo by Emile Waagenaar

Visitor, in the front, looking through one of the booklets

Photo by Emile Waagenaar

Freek's Ground Finds (artifacts dug up in De Kapeltuin)

Photo by Emile Waagenaar

Two talks were scheduled during the day, but I talked all day. 

A lot of interest; people that followed the whole project and a lot of bean-questions

Photo by Peter Eerhart

Freek's Ground Finds (artifacts dug up in De Kapeltuin)

Photo by Emile Waagenaar

Vistors could take beans during the day to sow them next year

* For more about 'Hill of beans' see the previous posts on my site

Hill of beans, sowing the seeds

The beans are already reaching for the skies. So time for an update here. 

My previous post 'Hill of beans, project at De Kapeltuin' shows the empty plot for my 'Hill of beans' project from 1 February till 24 April 2015. This post shows the preparation for sowing the seeds and waiting for the seeds to finally show their leaves from 8 till 22 May. 

Before I could actually sow my beans, I did a lot of research about beans. In general, about the specific beans I was planning to sow, about expressions and rituals with beans.

I found out great things and with every new find, my project grew.

First explaining the title: 'Hill of beans'. Watching the classic 'Casablanca', feeling quite disappointed about this classic, I was sitting on the edge of my seat when Humphrey Bogart says to Ingrid Bergman: “Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”.

What a perfect expression, but what does it mean. 

The mundane bean has for at least eight centuries been regarded as the epitome of worthlessness. Which is really strange regarding the fact that one bean makes many. So having beans makes you in a way very wealthy (or at least not hungry).

The original sense of hill of beans was literal. For example, a book on rural affairs by one J.J. Thomas dated around 1858 used it in describing how to grow lima beans: “A strong wire is stretched from the tops of posts placed at a distance from each other; and to this wire two diverging cords from each hill of beans are attached”. A little drawing alongside makes clear that the writer is referring to the mounding along the row of bean seeds.*

The belief is that the expression 'hill of beans' comes from the fact that if you sow your seeds, your beans, and one bean doesn't grow or has a disease, the whole 'hill of beans' was worthless.

Because we still use this expression, making something so valuable for so many people in this world, sound like an unimportant thing in life, I wanted to use this as a title for my work. Showing with my 'Hill of beans', the wonderful growth of beans, their many colours and beautiful drawings and of course their nutritive value 

Second, the date for sowing the beans. Beans like it warm, even so warm that they could easily be a solution to our global warming-foodproblem, so the temperature needs to be stable and no frost.

Everyone was saying I should plant them after the Ice Saints, because then there is almost no risk of ground frost anymore. Reading in on the subject, I not only found out that the day after Ice Saints was the best day for sowing beans, but it was also called 'Boondag' ('Beanday)'. I never heard of this before, but the last of the Ice Saints is the day to honor Saint Boniface. In Dutch Saint Boniface is is Sint Bonifatius. In Brabants this is easy pronounced as Boon-i-fatius, so boonman (bean-man). There are all these expressions like "Wie bonen wil eten, moet boonman niet vergeten", meaning something like "If you want beans in your place (or face), don't forget Saint Boniface", to tell you to thank this man if you want your beans to grow well. So the Feast of the Ascension, Hemelvaartsdag, became also my bean-day.**

And then I had to wait for my first beans plants to reach the surface...

8 May, second 'Fietswiel op staak' placed

13 May, organizing beans

13 May, organizing beans

14 May, sowing the seeds-day!

14 May, the beans are in the ground (somehow many pictures are made of em sowing the seeds, but I have none of them, yet)

21 May, making little bean-paintings as signs and using wooden ladles as herbs signs

Bean signs

22 May

22 May, added different 'noise' making objects and shiny bows to keep the birds from my beans

Replacing the plastic signs, collecting rocks and picking plants on the wrong places

The signs are in place

Detail of bean-sign for the 'Soldaatjesboon'

* More about the expression 'Hill of beans' on World Wide Words 
** Information from the article 'De waarheid achter het Heilig Boontje' on the blog 'Boon in de tuin' (in Dutch) 

Hill of beans, project at De Kapeltuin

Last year I got a suprize email inviting me for a kind of residency at De Kapeltuin, a community garden, in Breda (NL). 

They saw a ricecarpet by me in the very beginning of my still short career. Contemplating how to proceed with my ricecarpets, my temporary ephemeral organic carpets, after my projects in England, it come at the perfect moment. I didn't just wanted to make a work on location, I wanted it to grow on location. I made a plan and happily it was excepted.

The carpets that I normally make are made with materials I just buy at Toko, supermarkets and organic stores. In Cambridge and London I experimented with waste from pubs and given materials from homes. Resulting in different, interesting works on maybe even more interesting locations (see "Quid Pro Quo: Negotiating Futures" and "Practices of Sustainability, Étude #1 and Étude #2").  

How can I make my work more sustainable, is the question I'm asking myself. So I'm making my own materials. I'm planted the seeds and with the harvest I'm making my temporary carpet.

So sowing the seeds, reaping them and taking care of the plants till harvest. A seed to seed project.

To stretch this cycle even further, the seeds I use for the temporary carpets, are selected on the quality of the seeds. So people can take the seeds with them during the Harvest festival and plant them again.

They not only take a seed with them, but also a little bit of history about De Kapeltuin. Every seed together tells the whole story. So in this way, people get invited to share. 

It's more than a harvest to eat. It's a heirloom, captured in one seed. 

Last week my seeds went in the ground. I will share the growth of my project here, starting with a little photo-serie of my empty plot. From 1 February till 24 April 2015. The last photo is of Koen and Freek placing the bicycle wheel on a stake in my plot. The ending of the empty plot, but the true start of my project 'Hill of beans'!

On Sunday 14 June 2015 you can visit De Kapeltuin during the Haagse Beemden Kunstroute and I will be there to tell you about 'Hill of beans'. 

More information on www.haagsebeemdenkunstroute.nl/sabinebolk (in Dutch)

 1 February 2015

 16 February 2015

 21 March 2015

 18 April 2015

 24 April 2015

Freek & Koen placing the 'Fietswiel op staak'

E-book Cambridge Sustainability Residency

Proud to present the beautifully made E-Book of the Cambridge Sustainability Residency: issuu.com/alexdickens/docs/sustainability_residency
The work 'Procession' is very nicely featured in it, and so are my feet (see page 11). Makes me very happy that I was a part of this project and looking forward to the Sustainability Collective plans.
Enjoy the E-book and make sure to share!

Alles Stroomt*

Photo by Sander Heezen

What a wonderful, crazy year this is. After my England adventures, I had one more to look forward to, Into The Great Wide Open*** on the Wadden Island Vlieland. 

I never been to a Wadden Island before and put it last year on my wish-list for this year. Lucky me, my project got selected in April to be shown during the festival in September.

In the beginning of May al artists where invited to check out their locations, meet the forester Erik and get a small preview with Here Comes The Summer. It was pretty cold, and being home only two weeks after Cambridge it felt a bit strange being away again to another island. But I also felt so fortunate that this was and is my job!The project idea I send in was to make a ricecarpet that would be best visible from a high lookout. The pattern for the carpet would be based on a local popular motif. During my visit to the island and afterwards I gathered a lot of information about Vlieland and the specific location for my carpet called 'Sjouwersmanbol' (something like "Porters-man-bulwark"). On this viewpoint is now an ex-NAVO range. From this high steel construction you get a great view over the island, the sea channel between Vlieland and Terschelling, the sandbank Richel and a lot of water. The natural viewpoint was used by cargo porters to spot the incoming ships through the sea channel. They then had enough time to run towards the harbor and secure the shipment.

Looking at old maps and "spekmatten"** I noticed one clear motif, a symbol used on every map and I also found it on a lot of other things on Vlieland: A Windrose.****

All pointing North, I used 4 different motifs to make 35 windroses out of cooked rice. During the three festival days, 5 till 7 September 2014, the ricecarpet slowly disappeared while the birds eat from it. 

Below the making-of and audience taking a closer look. If you made a picture of "Alles Stroomt", please share it with me, thanks!

Making-of 

Audience taking a closer look

*****

Would like to end this post with a special thanks to my assistent Koen de Wit who spend hours cooking all the rice for me, thanks honey!

* "Panta rhei" / "Everything flows"

** "Spekmatten" are floor mats made by sailors. On board they kept the needle in the grease so it wouldn't rust.

*** On the Into The Great Wide Open site my work was featured as 'Oogst van de dag 1' 
**** Previous works inspired by windroses can be found in the blogpost "Was ist ist, was nicht ist ist möglich" on De reis naar Batik & on YouTube see "Dance in a ricecarpet"
***** Last photo is by nicolettepet on Istagram

Practices of Sustainability, Étude #1 and Étude #2

In July I had the great privilege to make art in the public space in London. Curator Vanessa Saraceno, whom I met and worked with in Cambridge, invited me to make the first projects for her practice-based Doctorate research "Sustainability. A New Sensitivity in Contemporary Art" at University of the Arts of London. 
"Practices of Sustainability" explores the potential of socially-engaged art practices for the amelioration of our relation with the social and natural environment. With these first two projects, Étude #1 and Étude #2, we explored how an art project can be sustainable in subject, performance, organization and preparation.
I made the works on location using materials, waste and organic, we collected in the neighborhood the week before the event. So that part was covered, but we also had skype talks before I arrived, making plans for the PR, whether printing a poster can be done sustainable, that I would take the train and how do you make people interact, or at least think about their practices of sustainability.

For the short time span we had to complete this project, we started talking about the idea in Cambridge, we explored a lot that can be useful for and hopefully will lead to an Étude #3 and #4 and so on!

Étude #1

On monday I arrived and the next day we started our project. We asked at pubs and restaurants around Blackfriars Bridge if they would like to help us realize an artwork by collecting things they normally would throw away, like bottle-caps and plastic forks. The response was very nice, the managers or bartenders let us tell our story, Vanessa is very good in this, and they were quite surprised when we asked in the end for their sponsorship in the form of their waste. Most of them responded with 'Of course' and by showing how they already separate their trash.

On friday we went back to pick up what they had collected. To our surprise almost all had something for us. We were welcomed with "Oh the ladies for the trash" and found they had placed a bag or cardboard box with instructions on them for their co-workers. 

I spend the evening separating the materials by color, kind and size and getting nervous for the next day. 

On Saturday 19 July at 11am I started making the temporary carpet on the Blackfriars Bridge. I worked with bottle-caps in Cambridge before, but combined it there with organic materials. I choose to make simple shapes, fish or bombs, repeating them till I ran out of materials. To secure the work I used sand collected at the river bank. 

While I was making Vanessa explained her research to people and asked them about their thoughts on sustainability.

Still can't believe how normal it was to make a work on a bridge in London.

Étude #2

Mirroring the project on Blackfriars Bridge, we went door to door in the surroundings of the Victoria park to ask residents for any organic material they would like to offer for me to realize my artwork. Totally different from the response around Blackfriars Bridge, most people didn't have the time to hear our story. Or even open the door. It was hard work and we spent two afternoons ringing doorbells in tropical weather. It tested our limits, but it was also a valuable experience. When doors did open and people made some time for us, it felt great when they went into their kitchen to see what they had for us. 

On Saturday and Sunday morning I prepared all the food so birds could eat it as well. Victoria park has the nickname "People's park", but is the park a place where only people can enjoy themselves or is it urban nature where animals can live and be, next to humans? With this question we started our project on Sunday 20 July.

For the temporary carpet I made stencils based on feeding signs for ducks and garlands of people holding hands with birds. I made the carpet out of all sorts of organic materials that the birds could eat. 

When I finished laying the materials, we waited for the birds. Every time they got close to it, people, mosty with dogs, would pass by. Most times unaware of the carpet next to their feet and of scaring the birds away. The people who noticed the carpet saw the pattern of humans and birds quite fast and realized what it was for. "Look it's people! And what is that, oh a bird. Oh it's food for the birds", but we had to conclude that a park is not for sharing with animals, at least not the 'wild' ones.

For more about Practices of Sustainability
in the press release Practices of Sustainability
on Facebook www.facebook.com/events/819147141428629/