Jude Crilly and Demelza Watts present an immersive exhibition Fever consisting of new collages, sculptures and drawing works.

The works explore alternative systems or paradigms through which to make sense of the complexity of our current moment. Today’s complex systems cannot be fully understood because they are embedded within other complex systems. Instead of falling back on simplistic narratives or conspiracy theories to explain the complexity around us, we must pivot to other ways of thinking. Collage is used by the artists as way to bypass these set logics and taxonomies that we have come to rely on.

In the works collage is approached in its most complete sense, using many materials and processes: drawing, weaving, tapestry, watercolour, text, embroidery, laser-cutting, CNC-routing, print and engraving. The works are hybrids of the hand-made and machine-made, creating personal material languages. The works mix and merge with each other—creating a ludic, open-ended, alchemical world made up of relations, and relations of relations.

Jude Crilly has created two wall-based ‘codexes’, which map connections between language, complexity and trauma. Taking inspiration from medieval medical manuscripts, animal avatars and the human nervous system, the codexes can be read as bio-psycho-social moodboards for our current moment. Where is trauma held within the complex systems of the body? How is trauma expressed outwardly by mind, affect and spirit, and how is it contained in our current culture?

Demelza Watts uses the idea of the ‘amulet’ as a starting point, as a personal, protective object which distill or contain moods, beliefs and anxieties—and as a recipe for new events. These amulets show the longing found in the switching roles from participator to observer many of use experienced during the isolation of the last year. Layering craft, gesture and recollection, Watts' works attempt to masquerade as a memento, a keepsake, a shrine even, to a lost moment.

About the artists

Jude Crilly (1982, UK/CA) lives and works in Amsterdam. Her work focus on sculpture, sound and writing. She was a resident artist at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (2018–2019). She earned her MA (Sculpture) at the Royal College of Art, London, and BA (Graphic Design) from Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam.

Demelza Watts (1990, Wiltshire) is an artist who lives and works in London. Watts completed an MA (Sculpture) at the Royal College of Art, London, and a BA at Wimbledon College of Art, London. Their work uses research, found objects and experiences to examine the intersections of art, home and the everyday.

The artists met while studying at RCA London. Both artists have exhibited internationally.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Niemeijer Fonds, and the a-n Artist Bursary UK.
The artists would like to thank Matteo Casarin, Monique de Wilt and Floris Schönfeld.

Photo documentation by Ilya Rabinovich.

Zhixin Liao has a special ability to find himself in strange situations. At airWG his residency developed under pandemic restrictions from April-July 2020 in which he invited visitors to break into his ground-level windows in order to see his newest works. Confinement is a relative experience. His permission to stay in the Netherlands restricted him within national borders for a period of time. Finding himself, once again, in a situation of not being able to leave, he decided to go out and search for these borders by bike. After touching the entire land border of the Netherlands Liao is now a participant at HISK in Ghent, where he continues to ride out into the landscape for occasional meetings with the Dutch border.

Recording landscapes between Sas van Gent and Gent, Liao weaves together a narrative of the legal, technological, psychological, and boring bureaucracy of EU borders. Art is born from its context, and Liao’s practice is now inseparable from the border-marking sculptures that dot the extremities of the Netherlands. Yet, in order to remain here, he is faced with an endless production of official documents to prove that he is a practicing artist, makes exhibitions, and is a useful member of Dutch or Belgian society. After cycling and recording the unique landscapes he has asked a group of friends and artists to help copy them, for this task he has been able to produce letters from them that affirm their active contribution to the Dutch art scene.

This exhibition is supported by the Mondriaan Fund.

The first contact between Holland and Japan was made in 1600 by the ship ‘De Liefde’. It was the beginning of a long symbiosis, not always happy, but all in all profitable for both parties. It was "Love” at first sight that turned into uneasy matrimony.

-  T. Volker, Porcelain and the Dutch East India Company (1954) 

Despite the national isolationism of Japan during the Edo Period, trade with the Netherlands continued. Thus, even during these difficult times, the two countries managed to continue their cultural exchange through trading. In particular, Japanese urushi lacquer wares and porcelain played an important role in connecting Japan and the Netherlands culturally.

The sea divided people from the outside world, but on the other hand, it was the only way to connect people to that world. Therefore, it’s easy to imagine why people in medieval times were so bewitched by the view of the sea. 

Tatsuma Takeda grew up by the sea on Amakusa island, near Dejima, the only Dutch trading post in Japan. His ancestor was a dealer in foreign merchandise. Also, Amakusa island is one of the regions associated with Japan’s “hidden” Christians and an area of exotic cultures. 

For this exhibition, Takeda will show new works created during his stay at the airWG.

Supported by Pola Art Foundation.

Opening Times

Friday 3 September 14:00 – 17:30  
Opening Performance night: 19:30 – 21:30

Saturday 4 September  14:00 – 17:30 
Performance night: 18:00 – 21:30

Sunday 5 September 14:00 – 17:00

Please join us for the opening days of 'In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo' presenting part I of: Questions?  –  Richtje Reinsma, Sightless Seeing #5: Black Box  –  Sarah van Lamsweerde, Subversion, Synthetic body –  Aram Lee, Façade_Override_Façade  –  Anastasija Pandilovska, curated by Marjoca de Greef and Anastasija Pandilovska.

(RR)

Why does the question mark end with a full stop? Everything that follows after a question is but a particle of the very same question. 

(MdG) 

Group assembly? She thinks a. Let’s call a your object. We observe that although I try to think a, her mind moves to b. You could fight this. Instead we accept the displacement. b now becomes my new object. Assembly and evolution. Group?

(SvL) 

One,                two,                three,                turning left, a hand holds a skeleton from someplace else, dipping the fingers in archival dust as the body navigates between repeating patterns. Like a Borgesian character, between the turning of pages, adopting a new role each time, growing and shedding a different skin with the turning of the lights

(AL)

The sea is a cloak as mirrors are masks. A flipping body amplifies faltering movements. Breaking the surface. For a moment our traces are laid bare. Overturn. The feet gain new strength. Only bodies attest to the change in the waters 

                                                                                     Slippery floor

(AP)

Splintering walls in scorching heat.
Façade, override, façade overrides,
layer after layer, each layer, emphasises a difference,
differences rendered visible, overlaid, superimposed, exclusion. Glitch.

What task does a fractured line perform?

(AL, AP, SvL, RR, MdG) 

Can we break off with a question? 

Made possible with the kind support of Mondriaan Fonds, Elisabeth Vermaat Müller Fonds, Lira Fonds, Tijl Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Noord-Holland, Stichting Helden der Zee-Fonds Dorus Rijkers/ Samenwerkende Maritieme Fondsen, Nationaal Reddingmuseum Dorus Rijkers, Allard Pierson Collecties.

Suns and Stars

info@sunsandstars.nl

www.sunsandstars.nl

31(0)6 16610195

www.inthepauseofagesturetheremightbeanecho.eu

Opening times:

29.07: opening ceremony with special guests Fuensanta Méndez, 18:00-21:00

30.07: 12:00-21:00

31.07: 12:00-21:00

01.08: 12:00-21:00

Belarus is a country whose national identity has been thoroughly destroyed over the past hundreds of years by way of repressions, language reforms, constitutional changes and heavy propaganda. The majority of Belarusians don't know their roots, culture and are ashamed of the Belarusian language, considering it 'peasant-like'. That is one of the reasons why we, as Belarusians, have been asleep as a nation for a long time and are now seeking the process of building and forging a new structure between us as humans, repairing connections between the land and people.

Voices Of Belarus. Chapter Two: Restoring Connections talks about the reparation of liaisons within family, the reconnaissance of ornamental language, the visualisation of the heritage that was never accessible to us, the remembrance of the names of ancestors to restore the way home. Artists invite visitors to acknowledge the exhausting growth of numbers of political prisoners in Belarus. This show is an act of solidarity with the Belarusian citizens who are fighting for their human rights but are ending up imprisoned and labelled as extremists. Voices Of Belarus. Chapter Two: Restoring Connections will guide visitors through the works and their language. It's an open space for conversation, which prompts one to think about abstractions of freedom, reality and dreams of people we might never encounter. 

Due to increasing oppression and severe persecution of any trace of resistance, freedom of speech and/or artistic expression in Belarus, we feel the urge to make multiple voices be heard and noticed despite the informational, political and territorial isolation of their origin. As a group of two expats and one resident of Belarus, we aim to raise the visibility of cultural cleansing by offering what we still have and are able to maintain by emerging and reinforcing connections from the outside and inside of our Motherland. 

Voices of Belarus. Chapter Two: Restoring Connections presents a new series of The Postcards Of Solidarity, and individual works: Long Way Home. Part  2, 2021 - the audio-visual installation by Masha Maroz; 10 Years Of Not Being Home - the photo zine and prints by Sasha Kulak; I Cry, I Cannot See - the sculptural illustration and the eponymous poem by Dasha Golova.

The Postcards of Solidarity, 2021 

(second edition - 555 pieces)

An ongoing project of Dasha Golova based on precious findings of textiles and tapestry from the ethnographic archive Past Perfect, this edition is realised in collaboration with Masha Maroz and Sasha Kulak. We kindly invite you to stand in solidarity with political prisoners in Belarus. Each of 555 cards is dedicated to each different person. These postcards are puzzles/fragments of a wider message, an ornamental code of Belarusian tapestry and embroidery, interlacing with the image behind it. This code is the key to our identity. The fragmentation of the print serves as a protection from censorship. Each of the postcards contains the information of the recipient such as the name and address of the prison, a stamp and our key message, an ornamental watchword. Everything is ready for you to activate this — not necessarily verbal — communication by choosing one of the postcards and dropping it into the postbox. By doing so you are delivering hope, a gesture of awareness, acknowledgement and support.   

The artists 

Sasha Kulak: a filmmaker, whom work spans a variety of visual projects ranging from documentary to fashion and music videos to photography and curation.

Masha Maroz: multidisciplinary artist and ethnographer from Minsk working on topics of collective memory trough personal, "belarusian context”, national identity.

Dasha Golova: artist and tailor, devoted to reflection on social fabric, its ruptures and reparations. Founder of biannual event Textile Initiative, based in Amsterdam.