August 16, 2009

Lighting up the Kinderdijk

Filed under: Architecture,Art,Gadgets by Orangemaster @ 12:33 pm
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From 7 through 20 September, the 19 historic windmills of the Kinderdijk, on the UNESCO heritage list since 1997, will be lit up with colourful, energy-efficient LED lighting from Philips and installed by Technische Unie. The colours of the windmills will represent different symbols of Dutch history. For starters, this red, white and blue with subtle orange overtones surely represents the Dutch flag and pennant.

Even my own family visited the Kinderdijk when they came to the Netherlands because it was in their guide book as a must. It was touristy, but not busy or crowded and you’ll learn a lot about water drainage.

(Link and photo: philips.nl)

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August 12, 2009

Public sculpture exhibition in Amsterdam

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 6:25 pm

Artzuid is an exhibition of temporary and permanent sculptures in the posh Oud Zuid neighbourhood of Amsterdam. It will run from August 16 to October 26, but they already have a number of the sculptures up, blissfully lacking any explanation of who made what or what the viewer is looking at, for now.

The exhibition was put together by architect Roberto Meyer and Jiskefet actor Michiel Romeyn.

Update:: Of course, Trendbeheer has loads and loads more photos, which is not strange as one of their bloggers, Florentijn Hofman, also exhibits there.

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August 7, 2009

Roel Smit’s ‘love-core’ catalogue covers

Filed under: Art,Comics by Branko Collin @ 8:48 am

Of all the incorrectly addressed mail I receive, I mind the Large catalogue (“pop merchandising”) the least, because it has got Roel Smit‘s vibrant cartoon art on the cover. Shown here is the latest, the autumn issue.

Frits Jonker, half of the Fool’s Gold team, last year reviewed Smit’s latest book, Rock ‘n’ Roel:

There are some of his early drawings in the book, but he became so much better around 1999. Before then, his work was enthusiastic and well done, but, with a few exceptions, not brilliant. After 1999 every drawing is exceptionally powerful and often so good that it makes me wish that I had put more effort into learning how to draw. All his work is centered around one theme: PUNK. Or rather, Roel’s version of punk: Love-core, as he calls it.

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July 28, 2009

Zone 5300 in the land of the Dadas

Filed under: Art,Comics,Music,Nature by Branko Collin @ 8:19 am

The Summer edition of Zone 5300 contains a large retrospective of The Cramps, the psychobilly dinos that put the fun into punk, because of stiletto-heeled front-man Lux Interior’s death earlier this year. Writer Eric van der Heijden handcuffs you, then shows all the clean versions of rock ‘n’ roll and the dirty parents they sprang from. Guess where The Cramps belong?

Lars Fiske reports on a 1922 visit of Dada to the Netherlands (illustration).

What do you do if everybody is already shooting nice pics of microbes, hell, if nice pics of microbes are really old hat in your country? Stereoscopic photos of the creepy-crawlies! Plus you try to get American art schools and Dutch museums to believe your story that art can only be objectively enjoyed after you have dunked classic works and instruments in a bath full of micro-organisms. Such is the wondrous sense of humour of Wim van Egmond.

Maaike Hartjes tries her hand at photography. Eerie! Cute! How does she do it? (Maaike’s got a new blog by the by, so go check it.)

And finally a long comic of Fool’s Gold contributor Milan Hulsing about collected collectors, so you know he knows what he is talking, er, drawing about.

(Illustration: Lars Fiske.)

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July 14, 2009

Lotte Klaver’s mesmerizing sketches

Filed under: Animals,Art by Branko Collin @ 10:16 am

Lotte Klaver has been posting sketches to her blog since she was yay high, or at least yay old, so that by now, what with her prolific output, her online portfolio is big enough for grown art lovers to get lost in. In fact, she started her blog before we started 24 Oranges, and I remember thinking back then: “this would be a good posting for a site about wonderful Dutch things.” After which I forgot. Apologies for the delay, good reader.

She also sells tees singing praise of the wonderful bond between humans and cephalopods, and you just know there are people who are into that sort of thing.

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Patching up broken bits of Amsterdam with LEGO

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 9:40 am
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If you can build things with LEGO, you can fix things with LEGO, right? Platform 21 Repair held a Dispatchwork session organised in Amsterdam with a little group of enthusiastic dispatchers and a big bag of colourful LEGO.

Platform 21 billed this event as “LEGO fix for distressed walls”, an art project by Jan Vormann, which fits into the Platform’s very clear manifesto of reparing things being creative, outliving fashion and, à  la Nietzsche, making you stronger.

(Link: janvormann.com, Photo: marc0047, some rights reserved)

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July 8, 2009

Writing pad sheets optimized for making paper balls

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 11:33 am

This pad comes with ready-made sheets for creating paper balls, whether thrown away in frustration or just to tease the teacher. The pad was created by Trapped in Suburbia who are operating from the old Caballero cigarette factory in The Hague and describe it as follows:

Play More More More is a note book that encourages clients to play at their work. Every sheet has its own ball print.

(Link. Via Bright. Photos: Trapped in Suburbia)

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July 3, 2009

Van Gogh’s paintings as shot by amateur photographers

Filed under: Art,Photography by Branko Collin @ 9:06 am

The Wiki Loves Art contest that I reported about earlier is over, and all that is left is for the judges to declare a winner.

One of the extraordinary things about this contest is that the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam opened its door to amateur photographers. That must have been a frightful decision to take, what with all the paintings worth millions just a camera stand leg away from scratching, so I hope it was a good experience for them.

Painting above is The Harvest (1888), photo taken by Flickr user Pachango. View the 4,500+ contest photos here, or just the 450+ Van Gogh ones here. (I edited the colours into oblivion, but I just could not agree with the red hue that Pachango’s version had, or the yellow hue on the museum’s website.)

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July 2, 2009

Stedelijk Museum gets American woman as director

Filed under: Art,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 9:22 am
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Only because the word ‘director’ doesn’t cover gender in English, did I use the word ‘woman’. In Dutch, ‘directrice’ (female director) is seen as a lesser choice of ‘directeur’ (male director) and not appreciated, while the French ‘directrice’, where the Dutch word comes from, is perfectly fine. And now, the news.

Ann Goldstein, an American, will be the first foreigner and first woman to head the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum in its 114 year history when it will reopen in the spring of 2010. Goldstein is currently the senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCa) in Los Angeles where she has worked for 25 years.

Gys van Tuyl, the current artistic director of the Stedelijk Museum says that the MoCa is a model institute that feels closer to the Stedelijk than the MoMA in New York. He also mentions that the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) has shown many of Goldstein’s touring exhibitions, which “says a lot, because the MoMA basically doesn’t take shows from others.”

Read more about all the bits of the Stedelijk Museum being exhibited throughout the city in the meantime.

(Link: rnw.nl, Photo: designboom.com)

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May 10, 2009

Villeroy & Boch in Gallerie10

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 12:43 pm

Until June 14 Gallerie10 in Utrecht will be showcasing the works of Villeroy & Boch (Alex Jacobs and Ellemieke Schoenmaker). Shown here: The Tree.

Via Trendbeheer (Dutch). Painting: Villeroy & Boch.

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