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Contemporary in Kawakawa

17Jan

Acrylic on canvas by Theresa Reihana in the Kings Theatre gallery, Kawakawa

“Rip, Shit & Bust – a response to invasive mining realities,” is the first exhibition in the recently renovated 1936 Kings Theatre just down from the Hundertwasser public toilets on the main street in Kawakawa in the north of Aotearoa | New Zealand.

detail: Orificia Coffee Table, glitter, masks, LED lights + show case plinth, by Sash.

Many of the paintings, prints, ceramics, raranga (flax weaving), carvings, sculpture and installations by the 17 artists relate to the exhibition theme of concern about drilling or mining: heightened naturally, by the recently begun Statoil oil exploration along the Northland coast. “Orificia Coffee Table” by Kaikohe artist Sash is a flashing glitter display case at shin height. The viewer has to adjust their stance and focus before the ‘blue worm’ which threads through the multiple eyes of Papatuanuku (Mother Earth) is recognized. The gentle flashing light works both as warning and metaphor for the flux of the natural world. Masks hide and reveal: here they represent a multi-eyed essence that is open and vulnerable. In Sash’s other work, “Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls” an oil like ooze in continual flow, cascades over brightly painted and glittered rocks and texts.
Theresa Reihana’s paintings and prints address the theme of the environment in more painterly terms. One of her paintings, pictured above, shows a fracture in the kowhaikowhai pattern above a clock face from a bygone age. The broken up earth below is almost abstract. The three divisions are like three worlds: the future (spiritual, conceptual or material consequences, with a fault line in the pattern of the universe), the present (time undefined) and the past (what has been done to the earth).

Detail Left to Right: Whenua II + I by Theresa Reihana, acrylic on plywood.

Each of the “Whenua” works by Theresa Reihana consists of two parts, the large face and a baby in a fetal position. Here “Whenua” is a powerful metaphor for what is missing between the two (in the Māori language whenua means umbilical chord). The gouged and ripped layers in plywood in the ‘earth mother’ indicate something is amiss, while the baby (each of us) floats disconnected.

Fossil Fuel by Gabrielle Belz, intaglio print on paper, 1 in an edition of one.

The print “Fossil Fuel” by Gabrielle Belz is a playful reminder that resources are finite and part of an ecosystem. Some of her other prints, such as in “Kia Tupato” (Be Careful), have drawings or cartoons on plastic laid on top of the print.

Kia Tupato by Gabrielle Belz

The text in this work reads “Don’t wake Ruamoko,” a reference to the guardian or cause of earthquakes. Her other prints also warn of unnatural disasters as a result of mining or drilling and Bev Wilson’s painting below addresses the same topic.

“There’s a Frac/tion Too Much Friction (as Tim Finn
would say) yeah” acrylic on board, copper-coated nails, by Bev Wilson

Under the mountain red breaks out around fractures and intrusions, like wounds that are irritated.

Detail: Raranga, woven flax, by Te Hemoata Henare.

Raranga by Te Hemoata Henare consists of two 4 metre woven flax strips. A maro (a traditional apron or loin cloth that covers the pubic area) hangs in the middle flanked first by mountain patterns and then by river-like patterns. For a Māori person, acknowledging your mountain and river always comes before any mention of ancestry, so that identity is symbolically situated in connection with the natural world. The title refers to the technique and medium she has used but it could imply that the land or the natural world – the blank horizon above – is continuous and enduring. In the text about her work she refers to the whakatauākī (proverb), “Whatu ngarongaro te tangata, Toitu te whenua” (People perish but the land remains).

Manaia, acrylic on canvas, by Julien Atkinson

Detail of Manaia by Julien Atkinson

What makes this exhibition curated by Lau’rell Pratt and Theresa Reihana so stimulating is the diversity of media and styles and approaches.
Julien Atkinson’s five large canvases are exquisite, not just because of his fine use of colour and technique but in their fine balance between design, technique and the conceptual. From a conceptual perspective, the manaia, a hybrid guardian of spiritual and material worlds, stands as if about to pounce on us, should we dare to approach. This stunning creature, the manaia, perhaps mythical, or perhaps not if only we had eyes to see, stands there to protect the land. Through the body we can see a horizon – the land this creature is guarding. In terms of design and technique: there is a beautiful play between flat decoration and three dimensional illusion, and Celtic and Maori stylistic features, along with sci-fi or hyper-realism.

Ruru, acrylic on canvas, by Tinike Hohaia

“Ruru” by Tinike Hohaia, like Julien Atkinson’s paintings, is a celebration of creation combining the decorative with the painterly. Ruru, Māori for a native owl (The morepork, Ninox novaeseelandiae) is associated with the spirit world in Māori mythology. It is believed that if a morepork sits conspicuously nearby or enters a house there will be a death in the family, and so like the manaia, this work could be read as a warning. In some traditions the ancestral spirit of a family group can take the form of an owl, known as Hine-ruru, the ‘owl woman.’ These owl spirits can act as kaitiaki (guardians) with the power to protect, warn and advise.

Acrylic and photographic print on canvas by Nellie Para

Tinike Hohaia is one of nine artists in this exhibition who were students of Theresa Reihana’s marae noho (live-in workshops in a Māori setting) coordinated through the Northland branch of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (a nationwide Māori educational foundation whose courses range from beginners’ to university level). Some of the artists, such as the kuia (Māori elder) Nellie Para, another of Theresa’s students, are exhibiting for the first time.
Here Nellie Para has appropriated a photograph on canvas of the British actress, humanitarian, and fashion icon Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) by giving her a moko (tattoo), a tīpare (a Māori style headband) and a whakakai (an earring), against a sky that reminds me of psychedelic art. I loved it that an iconic western image from a bygone time has been coloured by a local elder.

Fore: HiddenDestructionand Devastation, acylic on canvas, by Ann Hui, Orificia Coffee Table, glitter, masks, LED lights + show case plinth, by Sash.
Back: two paintings by Julien Atkinson, three paintings by Bev Wilson, two paintings and two prints by Maarie te Mamaeroa Jane Ruys, and five ceramic objects by Rhonda Halliday.

Whispering Time (II), photogravueintaglio, by Keatly Te Moananui Hopkins.

Hinepukohurangi, acrylic on canvas, by Natascha De Swart.
Artist statement: “The mist isa blanket for our landand rises as a blanketinourskyforourearth.”

Reading what the artists had written of themselves or their work gave me a sense of the diversity of Northland’s artistic and cultural communities. Many artists introduced themselves via whakapapa (their mountain, river, and tribal connections) followed by something about their work or approach. The format had not been standardized: some wrote of themselves being on a journey, others listed prior shows or galleries, and others provided statements in relation to their particular works.
 
Artists in the exhibition: Julien Atkinson, Gabrielle Belz, Graham ‘Tiny’ Dalton, Natasha De Swart, Rhonda Halliday, Te Hemoata Henare, Tinike Hohaia, Keatly Te Moananui Hopkins, Ann Hui, Keri Molloy, Kahu Reedy, Theresa Reihana, Maarie te Mamaeroa Jane Ruys, Sash, Alby Shortland, Nellie Para, Bev Wilson

The exhibition runs until January 20th 2015,
Kings Theatre, 80 Gillies St, Kawakawa.
Open daily: 10-4. Their facebook page.

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van Kerkhoff | McGlinn

1Jan

A listing of projects by Sonja van Kerkhoff with either:
Sen, Toroa, Tama or Carmen McGlinn

Sonja van Kerkhoff, born in Aotearoa / New Zealand is a visual artist who works in various media from video to performance to printmaking to sculpture. When she collaborates with others often these artworks are co-authored. sonjavank.com. Carmen’s website

2013
21- 31 May 2013, Aalmarkt 15B, Leiden
31 May – 7 July, Breestraat 46, Leiden
For “Film and Art” Carmen and Sonja will build a site specific video installation in the Aalmarkt which will incorporate a number of the LIsFE films. In Galerie De Pieter they will produce a performance-installation inspired by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, June Naim Paik + Alfred Hitchcock.

2013
18 May – 9 June 2013, Breestraat 46, Leiden
“Prayer Wheels” (Gebeds twee-wieler) is made by Carmen and Sonja

2013
9 – 21 May 2013, Land Art Maastricht Sen McGlinn + Sonja van Kerkhoff

25 Feb – 2 March 2013, Tahora High-country International Sculpture Sen McGlinn + Sonja van Kerkhoff

2 Feb – 1 April 2013, video installation, Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, Aotearoa | New Zealand Sen McGlinn + Sonja van Kerkhoff

15 Dec 2012 – 15 January 2013, art residency, Rotorua, Aotearoa | New Zealand Sen McGlinn + Sonja van Kerkhoff

ISEA in Bzyantium

17Jan

“Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unaging intellect.” 1

One view of the exhibition, "UNTITLED-second-nature (Te Kore-Rongo-Hungaora)". "Te Taiao Māori" (The Maori World/Environment) text on wall, 2011 by Te Huirangi Waikerepuru (Tribal affiliations: Taranaki, Whānui, Nga Puhi, Taitokerau), flanked by four speakers which are the soundpiece, "Te Kore Street of Breaths" by Sophie Jerram and Dugal McKinnon. On the left is "Mauri Wai Mauri Ora" (Water Energy, Life Energy), Taranaki volcanic stone + acrylic by Jo Tito (Tribal affiliations: Taranaki, Ngāti Pikiao, Tūhourangi-Ngāti Wāhiao). On the floor are one of the star shaped "Photo Astronomy," telescope photographs by Paul Moss.

New Zealand had a major presence at the 2011 InterSociety for Electronic Arts event with the exhibition, “Uncontainable-second-nature (Te Kore-Rongo-Hungaora).” At ISEA it contributed to expanding an ongoing dialogue of electronic artistic practice in an international context. Lanfranco Aceti, director of ISEA Istanbul created an ideal forum for the experience of electronic art by locating 5 of the 8 exhibitions within the centrally located Istanbul Municipal Gallery (Taksim Cumhuriyet Sanat Galerisi).

Previously the annual ISEA events have tended to focus on the two week conference, with exhibited work generally being displayed rather than presented within a conceptual framework (link to the curational concept for ISEA2011). However Aceti also went beyond the confines of the ISEA event in having these ISEA Istanbul exhibitions accepted as an official part of the concurrent Istanbul Biennial

Poster outside the Istanbul Municipal Gallery (Taksim Cumhuriyet Sanat Galerisi), Taksim Square, Istanbul.

It is one thing that this ISEA event was connected with such an international event in the art world but there were also conceptual connections on a number of levels made between the two exhibitions. Aceti used the title “UNCONTAINABLE” as an umbrella term for the independently curated shows, of which the New Zealand-Aotearoa show was part, while the Istanbul Biennial used the umbrella term “UNTITLED” – a reference to the American-Cuban artist, Felix Gonzalez-Torres whose use of this term referred among other things, to the influences of cultural hegemony in naming and categorizing.
While the Istanbul Biennial took a more literal route, also in the way each of the mini-shows were named after a particular work by Gonzalez-Torres, Aceti’s title “UNCONTAINABLE” touches on the ‘in-tangible’ inviting us to ask questions about what is contained to begin with, or how does electronic media ‘contain’ or ‘colonize’ in today’s world. The subtitles for each of the independently curated shows expanded this notion of ‘the ability or inability to contain’ in an organic manner. The New Zealand show subtitled “second-nature” at face value seems to be a reference to othering or alternative nature and in some ways it was, if one’s only point of reference are western cultural values.
Just as Aceti responded to the theme “UNTITLED” and expanded on this by use of the word “UNCONTAINABLE,” the New Zealand curator Ian Clothier’s use of the term ‘second nature’ does likewise as did a number of the works in the show.

"Te Taiao Māori", text on wall, 2011 by Te Huirangi Waikerepuru (Tribal affiliations: Taranaki, Whānui, Nga Puhi, Taitokerau), flanked by four speakers which are the soundpiece, "Te Kore Street of Breaths" by Sophie Jerram and Dugal McKinnon. On the left is "Mauri Wai Mauri Ora" (Water Energy, Life Energy), Taranaki volcanic stone + acrylic by Jo Tito (Tribal affiliations: Taranaki, Ngāti Pikiao, Tūhourangi-Ngāti Wāhiao).

As you entered the space of curved arches and walls, you encountered a wall of 6 metres of text arranged similiar to a family tree, of words in Maori with English translations. Like a family tree there was an ancestor above branches. This work, “Te Taiao Maori” (The Maori Environment/World) by Huirangi Waikerepuru is a cosmology of what we can feel, hear and taste, a ‘second-nature’ where potentiality is the common ancestor and elements such as life, water, time, interaction, or matter are the offspring.

The wall of text acknowledging the natural world in the context of an international electronic arts show made an immediate impact on anyone there. While one could make analogies with even how programmers programme in levels, modules or processes -a blueprint for the electronic- what Waikerepuru was illustrating was another type of blueprint that functioned like a support or spine for the body of the whole show rather than as a container or means for categorization. Although the text appeared to be like hierarchy, in fact it was an arrangement of three systems beneath each other and the words he used in turn raised questions such as the role of the natural world with the digital.

From this text flowed each of the artworks by the other artists.

"Mauri Wai Mauri Ora," Taranaki stone, acrylic + text by Jo Tito.

On the left side sat a volcanic stone (a kohatu or mauri, a special stone) bearing a painted motif reminescent of a wave by Jo Tito accompanied by a text connecting water to the flow of water within each of us.

"Mauri Wai Mauri Ora", Taranaki stone, acrylic + text by Jo Tito.

On either side there were speakers for the soundpiece “Te Kore Street of Breaths” by Sophie Jerram and Dugal McKinnon – a continuous audible starting and stopping of breath. Across from the text was Lisa Reihana’s video projection, "Whanaunga" (Relative) with a soundscape by James Pinker, featuring Maui (who brought a number of skills to the world of humanity such as the gift of fire) in the heavens and in water.

"Whanaunga" (Relative), 2011 digital video by Lisa Reihana (tribal affiliations: Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine and Ngāi Tu) and sound by James Pinker. In the background is a detail of "Kāinga a roto," (Home Within) a five screen digital video installation by Sonja van Kerkhoff, Sen McGlinn and Toroa Pohatu.

Reihana’s imagery oscillates between patterns, abstractions and a larger than life, Maui, a figure from the mists of time, as a surfer on the water. The title and surfing associations emphasize the present continuous. The soundscape (by James Pinker) – a rich orchestration of nuances and subtleties – could be read as an interpretation of a nature of continual presence akin to Waikerepuru’s use of the word “Papa-tu-a-nuku” (Revolving Earth) which emphasizes both the everyday, and natural and cultural history in one turn. Julian Oliver’s work “psworld” on the other hand takes a thimble of ‘ordinary’ water to enlarge on the extraordinary. Here a microscope not only facilitates the input for a computer, but nature controls the lifecycle of the computer. For this rendition of his work (see an earlier rendition), the microscope is focussed on protozoa in water which were projected on the wall. Their spontaneous and active movement determined the lifecycle of the (Linux) operating system which ran the computer. When there was too much variation in the movement of the organisms, the programme shut down the computer only to start it up again in order to repeat the process until nature closed it down again. Oliver has used the ‘ps’ function (used on UNIX-like operating systems as a way of showing in coded text what is happening on the computer as a means of testing its own system) to reveal this dependency between one system (the computer) and another (the natural world). In “psworld” coded text appear on the screen over the projection of the protoza informing us of the activity of the protoza as perceived by the computer. It is an exposed computer: vulnerable and dependent on a biological world in flow.
 
A scattering of star shaped photographs taken with a telescope by Paul Moss were arranged between all of the works mentioned above.

Left to Right: Detail of "Kāinga a roto" (Home Within), a five screen digital video installation inside a curved construction by Sonja van Kerkhoff, Sen McGlinn + Toroa Pohatu; "One man is an island," (obscured) a 6 minute and 40 second high definition video loop by Rachael Rakena (Tribal affiliations: Ngāi Tahu, Ngā Puhi); Text by the curator, Ian Clothier; "Computational Visualization of the Electromagnetic Sensory World of Sharks," 3-d modelling and animation, 2008, by Mike Paulin, and part of "Energy comes from the sun," hardware, software and digital display + 9 waterproof camera cases with texts with texts and selected elements from specific locations along the Whanganui river by Julian Priest.

In the adjacent vaulted space, Mike Paulin’s video was a modelling of the electromagnetic sensory world of the dogfish shark (Squalus acanthias). As a zoologist his approach was empirical while the adjacent video, “One man is an island” by Rachael Rakena could be read as a poetic connection with Waikerekpuru’s cosmology.

"One man is an island,", 2009, HD Video, 6 minutes, 40 seconds, by Rachael Rakena.

The man stands comfortably in a transmuted sea or lake and seems so at home here that he eats a fruit he has picked from its surface, taking no notice of his reflection on the same surface. Rakena’s simple yet loaded imagery highlights the complex interactions between the natural world and human nature. The imaginary simultaneously estranges and makes connections. The man is both isolated – not in communion with his world, and yet also embedded, embraced and grounded. This duality also references Maori concepts of tapu and noa, of the energized, vulnerable yet unpredictable powers of nature as well as ways a person can attain balance or place within the ‘natural’ environment.

"Energy comes from the sun," hardware, software and digital display + 9 waterproof camera cases with texts with texts and selected elements from specific locations along the Whanganui river by Julian Priest. Beyond is "Tele_Trust," 2009/10, by Karen Lancel + Hermen Maat (The Netherlands, http://www.lancelmaat.nl), in the "UNCONTAINABLE & Untitled" (http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/other-event/uncontainable-untitled) exhibition curated by Lanfranco Aceti + Özden Şahin. On the left is a detail of "Kāinga a roto" (Home Within), a five screen digital video installation inside a curved construction by Sonja van Kerkhoff, Sen McGlinn and Toroa Pohatu.


"Information comes from the sun" by Julian Priest consists of two parts: a circular plinth topped by nine transparent camera containers accompanied by a text placed on the plinth below each camera, and a visualization of solar power.

"Energy comes from the sun" by Julian Priest in front of "Kāinga a roto (Home Within) by Sonja van Kerkhoff, Sen McGlinn and Toroa Pohatu.

Each of the nine texts names a location, followed by a reference to an aspect of Maori cosmology not unlike the words used in Waikerepuru’s wall of text. However Priest connects each concept, such as water (labelled “The Caressing Waters”) not only to a locality or materiality (for example, this water comes from Whitianga marae and a spring which only women may use) but also to a specific experience or description which relates to the object contained within the camera container.

Detail of "Energy comes from the sun" by Julian Priest.


Waikerepuru’s words give equal weight to the conceptual and the phenomenological, whereas Priest’s approach seems to be about diverse systems of ‘show and tell’ which seemed to be lost on most of the public. This was a work that needed some form of explanation for a public unfamiliar with New Zealand. A statement that all these locations were along the same river (The Whanganui River) would then help people to see the connections between location, forms of explanation (some texts were poetic, some encyclopedic) and the objects contained within. It was also hard to see the connection between the visualization of solar power in the form of changing orange zeros and the camera containers. The display was intended to correlate with the intensity of the sun’s energy in real-time. Perhaps the disparities, the contrasts and differences were the intent of the work. The title relates to the display of orange zeros while the various elements inside the cameras it could be argued, are the result of life, made possible by our sun.

However the aspect of nature which seems to dominate in this exhibition is that of water. In the final work in the show, “Kāinga a roto” (Home Within),” a five screen digital video installation inside a curved construction by Sonja van Kerkhoff, Sen McGlinn + Toroa Pohatu, videos and soundscapes present rivers, the sea, waterfalls and rain as a recurring motif. And water flows throughout the show either via words, elements it has shaped (such as the sea worn stone) or visually in the various videos. Perhaps what is ‘second nature’ is not so much wai-rua, literally the second current, but that materiality (first nature) is more fluid than one might imagine.


The quotation and reference in the title comes from the poem,
Sailing To Byzantium by W.B. Yeats


Links:
Intercreate.org, which lists all artists and some images.
The ISEA webpage for this exhibition

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Quake & SCAPE – Christchurch 2011

13Apr

The number sequence 043504092010 (the hour, minute (04:35), day, month and year of the 4 September 2010 earthquake) first changed the landscape of Christchurch and caused the postponement of the Public Sculpture biennial, SCAPE (photos of some public art projects are here).
This t-shirt design was produced just before the major aftershock on February 22nd by SCAPE artist participant Anton Parsons for the opening of the 6th SCAPE Christchurch Biennial which was planned for March 2010. It was then canceled and now SCAPE is selling this t-shirt as a recovery fund venture.

"Nucleus" by Phil Price (2006)
Photographer: Dean MacKenzie Commissioned for SCAPE 2006 © SCAPE Christchurch Biennial

Some of the sculptures completed before the February aftershock are still standing. And I was amazed, when I saw footage of the disaster back in February to see one of my favourite inner city sculptures (the four inner parts move constantly like a wind chime, see this YouTube clip) was still standing and operating surrounded by rubble and collapsed buildings, a symbol not only of survival but of the magic of art.

And on that note I was swept off my feet by this song written by Ryan Fisherman, a Christchurch resident about his city and the quake. The undertone of calm is unnerving and moving, much like the image of the gentle slow movements of the red kinetic sculpture while all around the land shakes and shudders.


Country quake (song + video) by Ryan Fisherman
ryanfisherman.bandcamp.com

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SCANZ 2013 residency and exhibition

21Aug

“Kāinga a roto | Kāinga a waho”
(Home within | Home on the outside)
gallery space + botanic garden proposal

Sonja van Kerkhoff + Sen McGlinn, The Netherlands

See the original proposal in Feb 2012 or the final one in Oct 2012

1. Project description

From the inside out

Both our projects for SCANZ involve being physically positioned inside these sculptures. We will investigate Taranaki architectural domestic interiors as artworks or art statements. In treating lived in spaces as a form of art installation, we will investigate what types of stories or themes we can reveal, discover or suppose, and so in a sense make a sculptural project from the inside out. Then we will present our findings along the exterior walls of the sculpture we plan for Puke Ariki. We will research Māori and Pākeha homes, whare, community centres, etc, using the archives of Puke Ariki as well as via interviews with tangata whenua and visits to existing buildings and sites in Taranaki. Art is primarily about a feeling of immersion, engaging the participant so much that they feel that they are inside the story or image or sound or film. We take this theme of immersion and turn it around to focus on a culture of lived in spaces in a particular place: Taranaki. On the other side of the same walls our video installation Kāinga a roto, to be built in a new form in Puke Ariki incorporating recycled materials from Taranaki, deals with themes related to introspection.
Each of the five videos takes a childhood in rural Taranaki as a starting point (stepping stone), to explore themes such as what is family, what is the border between one’s memory and one’s fantasy, the role or place of individuality, and the role of self reflection in our relationships with the world, be it other people or the world of Tāne.
Our second sculpture intended for Pukekura park (link to a sketch of this) leaves the story open. It is an exoskeleton sculpture intended for being seen from the inside out. You can stand inside the sculpture and see the world through the gaps or in turn be seen by others.
While we are working in Puke Ariki the public will have the opportunity to contribute images of their own or their family’s lived in spaces which will be incorporated into to the evolving installation situated around the kāinga a roto walls. The end result will be a conceptual artwork in response to these findings.

2. An image.
Click on this to view it full size.

3. Relevance
We will be taking a scientific approach in the manner that we will research for information in Puke Ariki and other archives and in the sense of how we translate what we have learnt into the two structures we will build. We will use recycled materials or materials that later can be re-used or decompose back into nature. However our main aim will an artistic statement. Each construction will be in response to the theme “Home Within – Home on the Outside”. The construction intended for an interior space will house an existing 5 screen video and sound art work which features locations in Taranaki where Sonja was born. Most imagery is close-up and is intended to give viewers a sense of being ‘in’ nature or at least in close approximately to nature’s ‘skin.’

4. Possible outputs:
A video/sound and sculptural installation as part of an exhibition. Workshops could be given inside this space.
Workshops to be given during the research part of the project where we could set up a studio space in Puke Ariki and the public can also engage with us while we are there. If we use Puke Ariki as a workspace we would give workshops at particular times so the public can participate in these. Likewise if we work at WITT then we could give workshops there for students or for the public. These workshops would be art oriented with a practical aspect. Sonja could also present a paper in relation to practices of sustainability and conceptual art. The construction in Pukekura park could house another work or exist in any location. It could be small (intimate) or like a shelter or room. We could do a pecha kucha presentation of the final project.

Workshop Proposals

Art inside out by Sonja van Kerkhoff

A show and tell lecture by Sonja van Kerkhoff on contemporary artworks that address the theme of interior worlds. The audience will be invited to participate in the questions which are raised. Works such as the films and installations of South African William Kentridge, the London-based Mona Hatoum and the Scandinavian artists Elmgreen & Dragset as well as installations from the 2012 Documenta, Manifesta and Ars Electronica exhibtions will be illustrated and discussed.

The development of organically structured society in the process of globalisation
by Sen McGlinn

This discussion will begin with a broad-brush treatment of changes in global social systems that affect our practical lives, and our world-views. The goal is to provide a big picture, in simple words and without learned academic references, of where we are at, and where change is taking us, as human society on planet earth.

In my _Church and State_ and various articles, I have described the historical separation of the religious and political orders as one part of the process of the differentiation of social spheres, such as economy, science, politics, education, religion and art. This ‘functional differentiation’ has been going on for some centuries. One of its effects has been the individualisation of society and changes in gender roles, another is increasing interdependence. It has also fed into global integration, pluralism and relativism. Together, these constitute the revolution that is variously called globalisation or the formation of a postmodern society. However the world-views that we have inherited from the centralised and rationally ordered societies of the modern era, or from romantic reconstructions of pre-modern society, clash with our experience of living in a postmodern society. We have notions of what society is and how it ought to work, and they don’t match our experience of what works and feels right. The clash creates tensions within individuals which sometimes erupt in violence or self-defeating behaviour. The solution to this disorientation, is a re-orientation to a broad view of what society is in fact becoming: the organic society.

5a. Bio
Sen McGlinn and Sonja van Kerkhoff, both born and raised in Aotearoa (New Zealand) have been based in the Netherlands since 1989 and have been making art works independently, together, or in collaboration with others since the mid 1980s. Most of their work, often in the form of a site specific installation, relates to the human condition as an interweaving of the spiritual, social and material. For example in 2009 they participated in the “Treetop Gallery” in Regents Park in London, U.K., where Sen delivered a lecture in a tree house on “Structuring Society in an age of globalisation” while Sonja’s contribution was the hanging of orange tinted translucent tulips.

5b. c.v.
Sen McGlinn, born 1956, Christchurch, Aotearoa / New Zealand.
Sonja van Kerkhoff, born 1960, Hawera, Taranaki, Aotearoa / New Zealand.
They live in Leiden, The Netherlands.

2012 “Into the line of Time” site specific installation, SPLORE arts festival, Tapapakanga Regional Park, Aotearoa/New Zealand.
2011 Performance, Yuchengco Museum, Manila, The Philippines.
2011 Installation, Le Blanc Gallery, Manila, The Philippines.
2011 Installation, ISEA Istanbul, Turkey.
2011 Print, Municipal Museum of Gwangju, South Korea.
2011 Co-curation, EAE Gallery, Leiden, The Netherlands.
2011 Installation, Parlour Project Space, Queens Cresent, London, U.K.
2010 Installation, Museum Beelden aan Zee (Museum of Sculpture), Scheveningen, The Netherlands.
 
There is a fuller c.v. here (sonjavank.com/cv.htm)
 

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