Abschied

exhibition space 2

2009-11-19T10:44:00.006+01:00

Memories

2009-11-19T10:38:00.003+01:00

exhibition space 1

2009-11-19T10:25:00.005+01:00

exhibition space 3

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exhibition view: projection on mirror, Family Grijsen - Bleijer

2009-11-18T23:09:00.005+01:00

the opening (photo's by Eric Kampherbeek)

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with thanks to Stroom Den Haag, fotoK: Pascal, Martin & Susanne, my coaches Robert, Annja, Wies, Yvette & Annika, my aunt Annemarie, Dusty Sprengnagel who made the neonlight, Maria who embroided the photographs, Klaus who translated my texts and ofcourse my friends Tijmen & Eric, which helped me throughout the whole project. Also thanks to my family & my friends in Austria & Holland who stood by me during this project.

with Pascal and Martin from fotoK

speech made by photographer Robert Davis

before opening (photo's by Eric Kampherbeek)

2009-11-02T17:54:00.007+01:00

on the day of the opening

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projection outside

2009-11-02T12:49:00.003+01:00

the making of...

2009-11-01T11:42:00.002+01:00

building exhibition, part 3

2009-10-31T15:32:00.006+01:00

first day building my exhibition in Vienna, part 2

2009-10-31T15:01:00.009+01:00

first day building my exhibition in Vienna,

2009-10-31T14:41:00.004+01:00

framing embroided photographes,
from the series "Warum schreibst du mir nicht?" (why don't you write me?)

more updates tomorrow...

2009-10-27T01:54:00.001+01:00

about the upcoming exhibition "Abschied" @ fotok

erinnerungen

2009-10-27T01:34:00.003+01:00

Come & see this work live at the exhibition "Abschied" in fotok, grangasse 5, 1150 Wien

Reachable from Westbahnhof by public transport:
http://maps.google.nl/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=48.195824,16.339502&daddr=Grangasse+5,+1150+Wenen,+Oostenrijk&hl=nl&geocode=&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=17&dirflg=w&sll=48.19505,16.33343&sspn=0.005814,0.015224&ie=UTF8&z=17

last idea worked out in last weekend in Vienna

2009-10-10T13:21:00.003+02:00

made by Maria

2009-10-10T13:19:00.002+02:00

Embroided text on photograph in Fette Fraktur.

crossing Vienna

2009-10-10T13:17:00.002+02:00

finally on baryt

2009-09-28T11:14:00.003+02:00

it took some time to print this one... first negative was not sharp enough, then the contrast wasn't good enough and then the paper was not available... but yesterday we (Mira helped me) printed it.
150 x 100!

waiting for the right light

2009-09-28T00:19:00.003+02:00

Last weekend I spend an hour and an half waiting in my granny's house to wait for the right light. Well it wasn't of course my grandmother's house, it's actually the niece of my grandmother. But I call her also my granny. She has this great interior, really makes me feel wander through past time. She lives in a village in Niederosterreich and I had seen two weeks before this beautiful light coming through the trees, making a shadowpattern from the curtain onto the cupboard.
It would be the last photograph in a serie of five. In which an embroided text connects with the emptiness in the images. It tells the story of my greatgranmother missing her child which stayed in Holland after she was in a childtransport from Vienna to Rotterdam.
I shot with my small camera some other pictures to make time go faster. It took awhile, but finally the shadows where visible on the cupboard...
The final print (50x60) I made last week and this weekend I brought it back to Niederosterreich where it will embroided. It's by the way not the photographs that I put up here.

more to see

2009-09-16T12:14:00.002+02:00

?

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documents & photographs

2009-09-13T10:04:00.007+02:00

collages & prints

2009-09-03T13:16:00.006+02:00

stars found on wall

2009-09-03T13:07:00.002+02:00

I have embroid the stars onto the print, but they were actually written on the wall.

bag with barytpaper inside

2009-09-03T13:06:00.002+02:00

and it worked out...

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bit dark, but the second picture is solarized...

other experiment with really old barytpaper (from the 50s).

printing baryt

2009-09-03T13:02:00.001+02:00

tried to get a image solarised...

the startingpoint of my project...

2009-08-30T23:45:00.001+02:00

eyes that cannot see

2009-08-30T23:34:00.003+02:00

Okay here is one of the documents that will be seen in the exhibition "Abschied".
This pass belonged to my grandmother in 1941. She used it untill 1946, while there's a stamp in the back which says so.
Its unknown to me way the eyes are scratched out. Neither I don't know when this happened and by whom.
Well I have some ideas why it happened... Just to make you more curious, in the exhibition there will be (more than) a connection to this document which makes you think about why it's done.
In the meantime I have to do more research on WOII and the connection to what is happening nowadays in our society. Regarding to policies towards people from other countries, other believes and religions.

more collages

2009-08-30T16:43:00.004+02:00

from different testprints I made some collages...

collage

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night & day

2009-08-21T12:30:00.003+02:00

cross for project

2009-08-15T12:26:00.004+02:00

Different concepts for a neon cross which will be integrate in the photo installation:

prints

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Some prints in the dark room. From one of the few negatives out of my grandmother's legacy which never were printed before.

in negative

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Sorting out a bunch of black n' white negatives out of the legacy of my grandmother.
Next week I'll start putting things together...

title

2009-08-10T20:25:00.005+02:00

Recently I have made the decision that the definite title for this project will be "Abschied" ("goodbye"). For a long time I called this project "Abschied tut Weh", which means "it hurts to say goodbye". Now it seems too dramatic for the project. When I started this project I was more attached to the story of my grandmother. The need to tell a personal story in connection with facts and interpretation of the main Austrian and Dutch history has become very strong. "Abschied" will be a photo-installation going through different periods of time.

more prints

2009-08-10T20:21:00.005+02:00

Worked last friday again in the dark rooms to get some more material to work with. Currently busy stitching words onto photographs...

started...

2009-08-05T22:49:00.013+02:00

Today I have been printing in fotoK. Great experience to be back in the dark rooms again. Here are some pictures made @ fotoK

other parts of Vienna

2009-08-05T00:11:00.000+02:00

it's been some days that I wrote on my blog

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...in the meantime I have been checking out my neighbourhood

translation

2009-07-26T09:04:00.004+02:00

A niece of my granny still reads Sütterlin. She translated many letters & postcards which my great grandmother (who lived in Vienna) wrote to my grandmother (who lived from her 11th age on in the Netherlands).

Sütterlinschrift (Sütterlin script), or Sütterlin for short, is the last widely used form of the old German blackletter handwriting (Deutsche Kurrentschrift). In Germany, the old German cursive script developed in the 16th century replacing the Gothic handwriting at the same time that bookletters developed into the Fraktur typeface. Some people refer to all old German handwriting scripts as Sütterlin, although variants of the Kurrent script were in use centuries before graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin (1865–1917) was born. The word Sütterlin is nowadays often used to refer to all varieties of Old German handwriting although this specific script was only taught in German schools from 1935 to 1941.

with the train through Niederösterreich

2009-07-26T08:39:00.003+02:00

First to Wiener Neustadt where I was picked up to go to Neunkirchen for an impression and meeting in an exhibition space in Neunkirchen.
Afterwards to the little village Ramplach. My austrian "family" lives there.

going through a pile of photograph's finding this....

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view Vienna

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@ fotok

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Bleyer

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A first research on the Bleyer family has brought an encounter with a 75 year old man from the Bleyer dynasty. Looking for a Bleyer/Bleier/Pleijer family in the cemetery in Landsee gave me immediately an impuls. I found the grave of Stefan and Elisabeth Bleyer. People on the street could (coincidently?) show me the house of their son, Friedrich Bleyer.
The man was home and happy to talk to me about his ancestors. Altough it's still a bit in the dark if his family is connected to mine, it was a really nice encounter. To be continued...

the first days in Austria

2009-07-07T11:10:00.011+02:00

After a 13 hour drive (my boyfriend drove me all the way!) we arrived in a beautiful appartment in the district Hernals, Vienna. On the fourth floor I have a marvellous view on all the green which surrounds this area. On sunday we drove to my family in Ramplach, about an hour from Vienna.
On monday I started my search for the Bleyer-family (my grandmothers familyname). Led by the information I already had, we drove from Ramplach to Wiesmath. I wanted to track down the birthcertificate of my great grandmother. She is born in Beistein, a tiny village. I had to go to the village Wiesmath to speak to the priest. He can provide me access to the birthcertificates of the people who have been born in Beistein. Unfortunately the priest was on holiday. In august I'll come back in Wiesmath to talk to him.

A short movie of the surroundings were my great grandmother was born: Beistein, Austria

'ABSCHIED TUT WEH' (it hurts to say goodbye)

2009-07-01T23:55:00.001+02:00

This is the (work)title of the photoproject I will make during the three months as an artist in residence at photo institution fotoK.

Below here you find background information about the project.

2009-07-01T23:49:00.007+02:00

My grandmother came to the Netherlands after WWI, at the age of eleven. Due to varying circumstances she did not see her mother, who lived in Vienna, for years. The first and last time she saw her mother was in 1952, on her first holiday to Austria. In 2000 my grandmother passed away. By studying and questioning her inheritance I want to make a a visual interpretation of these events, in order to make certain choices visible that were made by her. I have already completed research for different parts of the present project. For example, I have my grandparents’ documents from before WWII until 1952, as well as postcards and letters sent by family in Vienna to Holland between 1922 and 1945. Furthermore, I found birth certificates and other documents which lead back to six generations earlier. Interviews with my Austrian family have given me insight into the personal business and lives of my grandmother and great-grandmother.

2008-01-21T16:32:00.006+01:00

3 generations photoprints on voile madras