‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / ‘The Carriers of the Image’ – 1 – Introduction
De Dragers van het Beeld, in English: The Carriers of the Image, is an art exhibition that was held in the foyer of Theatre Thalia, from April 28 until May 7, 2017. It was part of the celebration of 180 years Theatre Thalia. Eight visual artists worked with the theme of death, and more: resurrection from death, new life …
Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi wrote a series of columns that we will be sharing on the SAX-blog. Today part 1. Please find the Dutch text under the English text.
A Sparkling New Life
‘Alakondre [literally meaning: of all countries] is the word that we should use to brand Suriname’, said Alida Neslo. With that statement she found an immediate ally within me. This alliance would be continued, as I became the coordinator for visual arts of a team dedicated to celebrate the 180th anniversary of Theatre Thalia in a fitting way. The celebration of 180 years Thalia should breathe new and sparkling life into the theatre.
The Theme
In many cultures death is seen as the end of one life and the beginning of another new life. As a team dedicated to the celebration of 180 years Thalia, we initially spoke more about death and the way in which different cultures process death. But almost simultaneously, the discussion started to revolve around what happens after death: reincarnation, the afterlife, rebirth, etc. The most dominant question that came up was: How is this interpreted by different people and by different cultures? The theme for the celebration of Thalia 180 years, started to develop from here. Eros, Thanatos and Phoenix were brought forward as points of departure for the theme of the celebration. Eros as life energy, Thanatos as the non-violent peaceful death and the Phoenix as the symbol of eternal life; a cyclical life of passing and rebirth.
Visual Art
The theme was presented to the eight participating visual artists: Razia Barsatie, Anand Binda, Winston van der Bok, Soeki Irodikromo, Sri Irodikromo, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, George Struikelblok and Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi. Each artist was inspired by an entirely different aspect of the theme.
The diverse interpretations of the theme are elaborated upon in various short columns, which will help the public to better understand what the works of art displayed in the celebratory exhibition of Theatre Thalia 180 years are actually about. This visual art exhibition was on display from April 28 until May 7, 2017. In addition to the visual art exhibition there also was a Living Art Show, which was presented within the dance program in the weekend of May 5-7, 2017. It was a collaboration between visual artists and performance artists. The artistic concepts, created by the visual artists, were interpreted and performed by the performance artists. The coordination of the Living Art Show was in the hands of Dweight Warsodikromo.
TEXT Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi, 2017
Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi is a female visual artist from Suriname. She works and lives in Paramaribo, Suriname, South America. Kit-Ling studied visual art in Suriname and in the Netherlands. In 2005 Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi added the short video-film as a medium to her artwork. Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi makes paintings and drawings, inspired by the tropical rainforest, and the richness of the diverse cultures in Suriname.
Kit-Ling was the featured visual artist at the 13th International Conference of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars. This conference, The Caribbean, the Land and the People; Women’s Efforts, Women’s Lives, was held in Suriname, in May 2012. Kit-Ling was the recipient of the Bridget Jones Award for 2013.
TRANSLATION Cassandra Gummels-Relyveld, 2017
PHOTOGRAPHY Ada Korbee & Marieke Visser, 2017
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‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / ‘The Carriers of the Image’ – 1 – Introduction
‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / The Carriers of the Image – 2 – Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi
‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / The Carriers of the Image – 3 – Winston van der Bok
‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / The Carriers of the Image – 4 – Razia Barsatie
‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / The Carriers of the Image – 5 – Soeki Irodikromo
‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / The Carriers of the Image – 6 – Dhiradj Ramsamoedj
‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / The Carriers of the Image – 7 – Sri Irodikromo
‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / The Carriers of the Image – 8 – Anand Binda
‘De Dragers van het Beeld’ / The Carriers of the Image – 9 – George Struikelblok
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Een sprankelend nieuw leven
‘Alakondre is het woord waarmee we Suriname moeten branden’, zei Alida Neslo en daarmee had ze in mij een bondgenoot gevonden. Dit bondgenootschap zette zich voort door als coördinator van beeldende kunst plaats te nemen in een team dat zich zou inzetten om 180 jaar Theater Thalia op gepaste wijze te vieren. De viering van 180 jaar Thalia moet Thalia weer nieuw en sprankelend leven inblazen.
Het thema
In veel culturen wordt de dood gezien als het einde van een bepaald leven en het begin van een ander nieuw leven. Als team dat zich wilde inzetten voor de viering van 180 jaar Thalia, spraken we eerst meer over de dood en het verwerken van de dood binnen verschillende culturen. Maar bijna simultaan werd er ook gesproken over wat er na de dood gebeurt: de reïncarnatie, het hiernamaals, de wedergeboorte etc. Daarbij werd vooral de vraag gesteld: Hoe wordt dit gezien door verschillende mensen, verschillende culturen? Van daaruit is het thema rond de viering van Thalia 180 jaar zich verder gaan ontwikkelen. Eros, Thanatos en Phoenix (Feniks) werden als uitgangspunten voor het thema binnen de viering van 180 jaar Thalia naar voren geschoven. Eros als levensenergie, Thanatos als de geweldloze zachte dood en de Phoenix als symbool van een eeuwig leven; een cyclisch leven van heengaan en wedergeboorte.
Beeldende kunst
Het thema werd voorgelegd aan de acht (8) deelnemende beeldende kunstenaars, te weten Razia Barsatie, Anand Binda, Winston van der Bok, Soeki Irodikromo, Sri Irodikromo, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, George Struikelblok en Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi. Elke kunstenaar werd geïnspireerd door een geheel andere aspect van het thema.
De diverse interpretaties van het thema zijn in verschillende korte columns uiteen gezet en op deze manier kwam het kunstminnend publiek meer te weten over de inhoud van de kunstwerken die in de feestexpositie van Theater Thalia 180 jaar te zien waren. Deze beeldende kunstexpositie was te zien vanaf 28 april tot en met 7 mei 2017. Naast de beeldende kunstexpositie is er ook een Living Art Show gepresenteerd binnen het dansprogramma in het weekend van 5 tot en met 7 mei 2017. Het betrof een samenwerking tussen beeldende kunstenaars en performance artiesten. De kunstconcepten kwamen van de beeldende kunstenaars, maar werden geïnterpreteerd en uitgevoerd door de performance kunstenaars. De coördinatie van de Living Art Show was in handen van Dweight Warsodikromo.
An Eye for Art: Soeki Irodikromo, ‘Coming together’
In collaboration with art critic Rob Perrée, Readytex Art Gallery has developed an informative initiative: An Eye for Art. Once every two weeks Rob Perrée discusses a work of art from the collection of Readytex Art Gallery. This week he talks about ‘Coming together’, acrylics on canvas, 71 cm wide x 93.5 cm high, 2013, from Soeki Irodikromo.
Soeki Irodikromo, ‘Coming together’, acrylics on canvas, 71 cm wide x 93.5 cm high, 2013 – USD 1800 / PHOTO Readytex Art Gallery/William Tsang
The titles of art works are often too literal. They state that which the viewer sees. They add nothing to the work or to the viewing experience and the creativity of the viewer. In my opinion a title should be suggestive, raise questions, trigger curiosity and be somewhat puzzling.
The title of this work from Soeki Irodikromo (Pieterszorg, Commewijne, 1945) – ‘Coming Together’ – might initially seem literal. Figures coming together. That much is clear. But the title can actually refer to more aspects of the painting. Various colors, shapes, styles and symbols also come together. It is an abundantly filled convergence. The title hides that excessiveness within.
That abundance makes it into an enigmatic work. What exactly is happening here? Who are the figures? Is it a greeting? A planned meeting? A symbolic encounter? A meeting between lovers? It remains unclear. That uncertainty is strengthened because the artist allows the figurative and the abstract to mingle with each other. Furthermore, he works with symbols and characters that represent a language that I can only babble, but can’t speak nor read.
Irodikromo once said that Suriname is a melting pot of cultures. Its inhabitants accept the differences and more importantly, they are willing to share the different aspects of those cultures with each other. Looked at from that perspective, ‘Coming Together’ is a logical painting, an illustration of the country where the artist was born. It is not at all necessary to try to disentangle the elaborately tangled knot that he presents us with. That knot is supposed to be a knot. That knot is Suriname.
I am still inclined however, to link especially the characters, the symbols and the styles, to those different cultures. Perhaps that is a natural human act: a riddle must be solved. I do not get much further than that. I can detect hints of the CoBrA-movement in his imagery (his education in Rotterdam is undoubtedly partially responsible for that), I see symbols that could refer to Javanese mythology, I see a type of expressionism that leans more towards the international than the national, but that is as far as I get. For me many of the riddles remain riddles.
TEXT Rob Perrée, New York, October 2015
TRANSLATION Cassandra Gummels-Relyveld, 2015
Want to see this and other work of Soeki Irodikromo ‘up close and personal’? That’s possible at Readytex Art Gallery, Steenbakkerijstraat 30, Paramaribo. www.readytexartgallery.com. For more information about Soeki Irodikromo please visit the website http://readytexartgallery.com/soeki.
More work by Soeki Irodikromo available in Readytex Art Gallery:
Soeki Irodikromo, ‘Transformation’, acrylics on canvas, 63x77cm, 2015 – USD 1500 / PHOTO Readytex Art Gallery/William Tsang
Soeki Irodikromo, ‘Duality’, acrylics on canvas, 105x148cm, 2005-2015 – USD 2800 / PHOTO Readytex Art Gallery/William Tsang
Soeki Irodikromo, ‘Battle’, acrylics on canvas, 75.5×75.5cm, 2012 – USD 1500 / PHOTO Readytex Art Gallery/William Tsang
Soeki Irodikromo, ‘Owrukuku’, acrylics on canvas, 147x119cm, 2009 – USD 3000 / PHOTO Readytex Art Gallery/William Tsang
This edition of An Eye for Art has been sent as a RAG-mailing on Ocober 28, 2015 and was published in Kunst en Cultuur in de Ware Tijd on October 28, 2015.
Because really looking at art and understanding art are not always obvious and easy to do, we hope that these regular reviews will at least offer you some insight into the process. You will get to see how a connoisseur looks at art, discusses it, and then links the work to others within the international art world.
Of course you can only truly judge a work of art when you are actually standing in front of it yourself. We therefore hope to see you soon in Readytex Art Gallery and are eager to hear what you think of this artwork, and which other works of art you find yourself drawn to. Please note that the artworks discussed are still available for purchase at the time that the review is published.
Rob Perrée is art historian and works as freelance writer, art critic and curator, specialized in contemporary (Afro-) American art, African art, Surinamese art and art using new media. His work has appeared in countless catalogues, books, magazines and newspapers. He is editor of Sranan Art Xposed, editor in chief of Africanah.org and a member of the editing team of Pf Photo Magazine. His website: http://robperree.com.
Leonnie van Eert – “Giving form to something that is unformed”
Leonnie van Eert (Leende, Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands, 1961) was once again present at the Nationale Kunstbeurs 2012 [National Art Fair] with her ceramics. As one of the regular participants of the last few years, hers is a booth that I am always looking forward to. As usual she exhibited a number of special pieces, all in her typical style. No refined and polished ‘common’ work, but a bit ‘rough’, as though it comes straight from nature. Her theme for the NK 2012 was ‘the snake’. And although the work was quite striking, it did not attract any potential buyers. Contrary to previous years, the ceramist sold nothing.
Leonnie van Eert, ‘Nyun libi’, 2012 | PHOTO Leonnie van Eert, 2012
Leonnie van Eert: “I did get a lot of reactions. A lot of students at the Nationale Kunstbeurs liked my work. That feels good. ‘It’s a bit different, it’s exciting!’ is something I heard for example. A number of colleagues said: ‘You have grown, you are more daring, and the work is nicely finished’. But people did keep asking: ‘Why did you choose for snakes?’”
Leonnie van Eert, ‘Sranan sneki’, 2012 | PHOTO Leonnie van Eert, 2012
In Suriname people generally have negative associations when it comes to snakes. Will she take this into account the next time she chooses a new theme? “No. I will stay true to my own process. I am not all of a sudden going to start making things because they sell. It is what it is. If I had known this in advance, I would still have chosen for this theme. The year before, I had bird-like elements in my work. Working with ceramics is a step by step process. I saw a snakeskin hanging in the branches of a tree in my garden. That is something I can then look at in pure admiration. It made such an impression me! Or, as I once saw in an obé tree: a snake that was completely encircling the trunk which is covered with leaf stems. The pattern, the shapes … I hold my breath and watch that, mesmerized … I am not afraid. When I saw the snakeskin, I made a sketch. I was also working with bamboo, and you know that snakes love bamboo as well. That was when the idea was born: snake and bamboo, to combine them. I know that people have such a fear of snakes; snakes are often portrayed so negatively, but a snake can also represent healing, think for instance of the esculaap sign. The playfulness, the flexibility of the snake is what I tried to express: an embrace of snakes, a snake that comes out of a ‘prapi’ [Indian earthenware bowl, MV].”
Leonnie van Eert, ‘Prapi sneki’, 2012 | PHOTO Leonnie van Eert, 2012
“I truly make my own thing of it. I don’t know how the viewer looks at it, but I feel as though I’m making forms that can be found in nature or amongst ancient peoples. Take for example that prapi. I give it my own shape. Previous themes were ‘Amazonia’, ‘symbols’, ‘bamboo’, now ‘the snake’ and I don’t know what will come next.”
Leonnie van Eert, ‘Brasa’, 2012 | PHOTO Leonnie van Eert, 2012
“I started with ceramics at Soeki in 2008. I have always been involved with creative projects and also followed a course in watercolors for example. Right from the start I liked working with clay. With the earth. To give form to something that is unformed. That is my way of bringing things that live inside of me, to the outside. I think that I like going into depth, that I dare to do so. When you work with clay, it can conjure up a lot. I was working on a piece for the NK and experienced a lot of pleasure from it. If it got sold in October, it would have been too soon. That was Dansi, a relief with a snake in the middle. It was as though I was very close to the spiritual world. That is just about the best thing that I can feel. I even went to Humphrey Tawjoeram to get the colors clearer and better.”
Leonnie van Eert, ‘Makandra’, 2012 | PHOTO Leonnie van Eert, 2012
Leonnie keeps developing herself. “Now I started batik lessons at Sri. Ceramics will stay my main material. I am not finished with it. The clay is just Surinamese clay, which I clean by myself. But I like to also work with other materials, such as raffia.”
Although she was born in the Netherlands, Leonnie has been living in Lelydorp, in the district Wanica, with her family for fifteen years now. “I think that if I had stayed abroad, I would probably be making different work. My work in the indigenous community of Kwamalasamutu, with the people and especially with the children, had a great influence on me. I integrate that into my work. The maroon culture upstream of the Suriname River is also inspiring to me. Or the maluana’s [decorated round disc with symbols, which is placed in the top of the roof of the community hut of Wayana-indians, MV], the symmetry of them, is something that you can recognize in my work. The shapes of my work are nature shapes. Do you know the term ‘Tribal Art’? That feels a lot like it’s mine”
Leonnie has also been inspired by fellow artists. “Someone like Winston van der Bok, or Rinaldo Klas, the way in which Rinaldo puts his shapes on canvas. Roberto Tjon A Meeuw, especially the masks. Marcel Pinas, the work that he does in the districts. Sri, and in particular her work for Paramaribo SPAN: Ingiwinti. Ruben Makosi exhibited in 2008 with the work Slangenmoeder [snake mother] at the NK. A work with a strong individualism and which was not per se intended for commerce. I have to keep feeding myself!”
Ceramics have for now been placed on the backburner, but that is purely for economic reasons. At this moment Leonnie works at the Kangoeroeschool http://www.kangoeroeschool.com/, where she is responsible for the development of creative art-related activities for the after-school care. She also works as freelance educational coach for a private owned kindergarten in Lelydorp and she also organizes creative art-related activities for Stichting voor het Kind [foundation for the child]. There was previously a post about this on the Sranan Art-blog.
Please feel free to contact Leonnie van Eert to see her work at leonnievaneert @ yahoo.com (leave out spaces before and after @). A series of small ceramic discs with symbols is available at Readytex Art Gallery, Maagdenstraat 44-upstairs, Paramaribo. For more work please visit the Sranan Art Flickr Photo Account.
TEXT Marieke Visser, 2013
Marieke Visser (Bennekom, the Netherlands, 1962) studied journalism and language and literature in the Netherlands. As publicist she writes a lot about art, culture, history and tourism from her own news agency Swamp Fish Press. The three most recent large art projects to which she has contributed are: Wakaman Drawing lines, connecting dots, Paramaribo SPAN and Kibii Wi Koni Marcel Pinas The Event. She is currently editor in chief of Sranan Art Xposed.
Revealing our stored treasures
Revealing our stored treasures is the title of the exhibition by Readytex Art Gallery which showcases a prime selection of the gallery’s collection.
The art scene in Suriname is rapidly changing, and thus the way the work is exhibited has changed too. Readytex Art Gallery, once the only ‘real’ art gallery in Suriname with a continuous exhibition schedule, has proven to become too small for all purposes. De Hal is a very welcome addition. It is very nice to see such a varied but still coherent selection of high quality art.
Lygia Matawi and Ada Korbee selected the work. The work was hanged in groups. The first idea was to fill the walls, to reflect the overflowing storage space of the gallery. But that proved to be a fun idea but it didn’t work out in reality.
Some of the participating artists on opening night │ PHOTO Readytex Art Gallery/William Tsang, 2012
What: Revealing our stored treasures
Who: Reinier Asmoredjo, Paul Chang, Leonnie van Eert, Kenneth Flijders, Soekidjan Irodikromo, Sri Irodikromo, Henry Soekarman Kartotaroeno, Rinaldo Klas, John Lie-A-Fo, Kurt Nahar, Sunil Puljhun, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, George Struikelblok, Humphrey Tawjoeram, Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi, Roddney Tjon Poen Gie, René Tosari, Steven Towirjo, Wilgo Vijfhoven, Hanka Wolterstorff & Ay Xiang. Of these artists it is worth mentioning that Paul Chang, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, George Struikelblok, Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi & René Tosari can be found at other websites as well.
When: February 2, 3, 4 & 5 2012
Where: De Hal, Grote Combéweg 45, Paramaribo, Suriname
TEXT Marieke Visser, 2012
