Sabine Bolk

After-schoolproject Liniepark in Breda (NL)

Even if its grey and cold outside, every day the sun shines in Liniepark in Breda (NL). I was lucky to make a nice project last year in the park where I also count butterflies. I have been active as a Butterfly Monitor since April 2012. In the Summers walking my route, I noticed that even though the park had a bad reputation and was covered with litter, a lot of people enjoyed it and even more important many animals and insects were living there. To make it a nicer place for animals and people, I came up with an after-school program for the schools next to the park, Rudolf Steiner and Okba Ibnoe Nafi. I titled the project "Daar lusten de honden geen brood van". An Dutch expression, but instead of using the meaning of the expression, I referred literally to the fact that even the dogs pooping in the park wouldn't eat the piles of moldy bread. In this way giving my frustration of litter in the park a funny name.

Walking through the park with a parade of 20 kids from the Rudolf Steiner School in May and June of 2014 was funny and great. We were lucky to see the butterflies I told them about, but also other little insects and waterbirds. I told them about the inhabitants of the park, but also about how we could improve the park for them. We talked about litter, the mowing policy and that that scary looking larva become the pretty ladybug, smelled the minty watermint and tried to collect shiny, dotted feathers without disturbing the ducks to much.

Drawings of pretty and ugly things in the park

In September and October 2014 my project was used to make an entire after-school program about Nature & Environment at Okba Ibnoe Nafi. In the lessons they would talk about things like recycling, what is your environment? And how would you like to improve it?
During the walks we would talk about the things we noticed, about litter and the animals, about being quiet and meanwhile spotting butterflies.
During the second walk I asked them to draw what they liked and disliked about the park. The first reaction was "We don't want to draw ugly things!", but I explained that in order to make people aware of ugly things, like empty bottle, cigarette butts, moldy bread and dog poo, we need to confront them with it.
In the last lesson we made signs for the park, not your tradition prohibition signs, but a signs that explains what the kids from Okba Ibnoe Nafi find important.
The signs show a mix of butterflies, the fountain (important for the health of the water and therefor important for the inhabitants of the park), trees, trashcans with the text "throw your trash in the trashcan" and "Be quiet".
These beautiful signs had to be proper unveiled in the park. So I send some press-releases, hoping the speeches the kids prepared, would be documented by one official press-person. To our surprise the unveiling was documented by 3 photographers and a cameraman and. The kids were nervous, but also very happy to become little celebrities.

Unveiling by director of Okba Ibnoe Nafi and two of the sign-makers*

The next day the local newspaper BN de Stem put the unveiling of the signs on their frontpage of City & Region (Stad & Streek) news and in the weekend it was frontpage on the door-to-door citynewspaper Het Stadsblad.
Happy news, fighting negativity with positivity! I'm a strong believer of that and every time I see the colorful signs in the park I know it is the right way. You need to confront people with the ugly things, but sometimes the same goal is achieved by showing the pretty things instead!

In Bn de Stem "Students make Liniepark beautiful"**

* Photo by BredaBeeld

** Article "Leerlingen maken Liniepark mooi" in BN de Stem on 4 November 2014

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/

I CONTEST - PRINT IT!

Between my collaboration project "Practices of Sustainability" with Vanessa Saraceno and my holiday to visit my dear friend and colleague Emmy Dijkstra, I made a textile design for a great competition.

The TextielMuseum in Tilburg is now showing the wonderful exhibition "Artist Textiles. Picasso to Warhol" which I saw in London at the Fashion and Textile Museum.
The exhibition is full of textile designs made by artists, some are shown hanging on the wall, or turned into great dresses from the fifties & sixties.

Now the TextielMuseum invited artists to send in their own textile design. A design, minimal size 1 by 1 meter, that is based on printing techniques. The winners get their designs printed on fabric!
A jury will select the final winners, but you also have the chance to show your design in the museum!!!
To help me get selected, you can 'vote' for my design by liking, sharing, google plussing or pinning it with the social media tools below on my page.
Go to this page www.textielmuseum.nl/nl/pagina/sabine-bolk, check out my design and use the social media tools to vote!

Thank you!

Practices of Sustainability

On Saturday, 19 July 2014 and Sunday, 20 July 2014, Dutch artist Sabine Bolk will present to the city of London her new public installations, Étude #1 and Étude #2.

On Saturday, 19 July, from 11am to 4pm, Étude #1 will consist of a series of sculptures occupying the pedestrian area of Blackfriars Bridge. In one of the noisiest and most heavily transited area of London, signs and symbols of British visual culture will be deployed to address issues of sustainability in the urban environment.

In the days before the unveiling of the installation, the artist will stage a ritual in the vicinity of the bridge, asking residents and passers by to share any object they want to offer, and inviting them to the unveiling of the sculptures on Saturday.

The artist will work with the collected objects, and the community will be invited to participate by sharing memories and experiences on the social sustainability of such a transitory area, in the slowness and intensity of an art experience. The temporality of this work will address sustainability as a vulnerable concept, inviting people to reflect on the consequences of their actions on their own environment, and imagine a different experience of the metropolitan everyday.

On Sunday, 20 July 2014, from 11am to 4pm, Sabine Bolk will present Étude #2, an invitation to non-human species to re-appropriate Victoria Park, an area of the city that is meant to be a free space for both animals and people. Étude #2 will invite people to re-think the visual culture of British rituals to inspire an alternative knowledge that may revitalise our relation with nature, and infuse in the community a different sensitivity towards sustainability.

Mirroring the project on Blackfriars bridge, in the days before the unveiling of the installation, the artist will go from door to door in the surroundings of the park to ask residents for any organic material they would like to offer, while inviting them to the unveiling of the installation on Sunday.

Combining the donated materials with birdseeds, the installation invites members of the community to share their thoughts if and when the birds interact with the sculptures, turning the project into an investigation of sustainability in everyday life.

Rituals address values that are contradictory, and meanings that are volatile and constantly negotiated. They offer an opportunity to see how society structures itself, and relates to its environment. Embodying sustainability as a contested concept, the curatorial research project Practices of Sustainability explores the potential of socially-engaged art practices for the amelioration of our relation with the social and natural environment. The project is part of Vanessa Saraceno’s practice-based Doctorate research Sustainability. A New Sensitivity in Contemporary Art at University of the Arts of London.

Etude#1 and #2 have been generously supported by JAWS, Journal of Art Writing by Students.

Into The Great Wide Open

Op woensdag 4 juni ben ik aangekondigd als onderdeel van het Kunstprogramma tijdens het festival Into The Great Wide Open op Vlieland van 5 t/m 7 september.
Ik kijk er ontzettend naar uit, wat een eer om daar aan mee te mogen doen!

Bij het betreden van de uitkijktoren wordt er een wit patroon zichtbaar in het landschap. Naarmate je hoger en hoger klimt, lijken de verschillende patronen steeds meer een geheel te vormen. Een groot tapijt, gemaakt van rijst, bedekt de ondergrond. Vroeger was de uitkijktoren een plek waar men uitkeek of wachtte op de binnenkomende schepen. In september kijk je uit over de patronen, geïnspireerd op zogeheten spekmatten, een soort kleedjes die zeevaarders maakten in de maanden aan land.

Een hele stille bezoeker zal na even wachten worden beloond met het aanschouwen van de verdwijning van het tapijt; het materiaal waarvan het gemaakt wordt is immers ook voer voor de vogels op het eiland.

Alles stroomt en niets blijft.

Meer info op www.intothegreatwideopen.nl

Kunst en Bomen, making of boomkleed 'Acer Ginnala'

Vanaf woensdagavond 14 mei is mijn boomkleed voor de Acer Ginnala op het St. Jansplein in Moergestel te zien. Het boomkleed 'Acer Ginnala' maakt deel uit van het Kunst en Bomen project.

100 kunstenaars hebben voor 100 bomen werken gemaakt. De kunstroute in Oisterwijk en omgeving is van 25 mei t/m 26 oktober te bezoeken. Op zondag 25 mei wordt de kunstroute feestelijk geopend om 14u op De Lind in Oisterwijk.

Na de opening zijn er nog verschillende activiteiten zoals een Meet & Greet met de kunstenaars, dus hou mijn site in de gaten voor meer rondom mijn boomkleed.

Mocht je naar de opening toe gaan, laat het me even weten, dan spreken we af bij mijn boomkleed in Moergestel!

Hier onder een fotoverslag van het maakproces,

tot in Moergestel!

Eerste ontmoeting met mijn boom