Eehhhmm... art?

at the same museum (see my last post) we also saw the above pieces. a tissue box holder, a vase and a lamp. tissue box says "love", but the lamp is a kut-lamp and the vase a lul-vase. the dutch among you immediately saw that that is pretty weird....!! anyone else..? i suggest you use google translate or something...  :) is it art? hmmm... is it weird? most definitely. would i buy it? probably not.... 

the artist is dienand christe and somewhere i just read that the thing he likes to do most is "annoying other people"... 

the museum btw is the kunsthal in rotterdam. they currently have a very extensive exhibit on 50 years james bond. im not that big of a james bond fan, but i really liked the exhibit. there are a lot of gadgets on view, as well as dresses, costumes, storyboards, etc tec. its very nicely done and it even made me want to see a james bond movie! (although we still didnt get to do that). when we were there, it was extremely crowded (while the remainder of the museum was interesting too, but was quite deserted), so much so that we eventually did the exhibit from finish to start; we actually were able to see more that way.... :)

Shadow words

a few weeks back we were in a museum and this is one of the things we saw. tim only saw the wires and said; ah no, this one is boring.... but look!! there is a mirror at the end of the wires, a lamp, and.... shadow words as a result.... who would have thought?! how do you do that? but well... quite a complicated way of writing.... :)

Big bear...

ah, and me. lunging.... :) after a day of biking through amsterdam (where we passed lunging rembrandt, the fancy gym, the meadows and the marathon, i.e. nearly all my recent posts), we wanted to finally go home. not too far from our place was some roadwork and we had to take a detour. suddenly we faced a giant bear at a rather tiny playing field..... of course we had to stop again so i could take some pictures! (well, tim in this case...)

this bear made of concrete is 11 metres tall.... its called "staalman" (literally its "steel man", as staalmanplein is the name of the square), and is standing there since 2011. the buildings around the square were all recently built. the little park at the feet of the bear was co-designed by the kids in the neighborhood. one of their requests was a sculpture. they asked the dutch artist florentijn hofman (hes responsible for the giant floating duck and other giant sculptures around the world), and together they choose a bear. with a pillow under its arm. the pillow symbolizes bedtime; children should goto bed on time instead of being out on the street till late, so they are well rested again the next day. moreover, the pillow represents moving houses; all the people in the neighborhood had to literally take their pillows and leave their old houses for the new ones to be built....

Sitting lady

this statue is along the main street close to our apartment. it is a war monument, called the sitting lady, but i do not exactly know why it is associated with WWII (it was placed may 4th 1957. not at exactly this location, but somewhere close). in the back a woman just finished hanging laundry from the balcony. i was afraid she would think i was taking pictures of her, but i think she didnt notice. i actually was sort of taking pictures of her, i thought it was interesting together with this sitting lady.

many people around here hang their laundry from the balcony like this. until recently i only hung it on the balcony, but this week i tried the above method. as it hangs more freely, it dries faster. buuuttt... i am always afraid that i drop some of the laundry in the nieghbors garden (not freely accessible), or that the wind will blow it off the rack... if you look downstairs, you do see several pieces of laundry in various gardens..... some people hang out entire blankets and mattress covers, so they partially hang in front of their downstairs neighbors balcony, isnt that weird?!

Another canal

 i saw this statue in a city in the north of the netherlands (sneek). as you can see, just like amsterdam it has canals, and cars park next to them.... but i was more interested in the statue. isnt it cute? it was placed in 1981 (the year i was born), and is called "child with lamb". it is made by maria van everdingen and symbolizes the care of and for children.

in 2012, a group of idiots (i.e. some drunk kids) pulled so hard on the girl's arm that it was ripped off the pedestal. they just left it there, so at least the municipality could pick it up the next day to repair it....

And again...

and dogs again!! this gives you a better idea of the enormity of the 2 dogs, and that its really quite cute, no?

first time i was biking in this park, just minding my own business, i thought i had imagined it. really??! 2 giant dogs...? until i looked again and they were really there......

Another dog

to continue with "dog art"..... heres another dog. we saw it in the museum in groningen, all the way up in the north of the netherlands......

2 artists were involved in this artwork, and it is meant as a parody on icons of american culture (in this case the hot dog). there were other artworks as well, one had something to do with plastic surgery. and another.... eehmmmm, ah, cars, i think. but this sort of sofa was the most bizarre. but so shiny and purple! i had to take a picture.....

Another break

whoopsie,... suddenly i again didnt post for over a week.... i even missed the 4th anniversary of this blog!! (as did everyone else... ;) ).

soooo.... heres another picture (by now the trees are a bit greener)... its taken on the overpass of a park not too far from our house. this doggie (which is really quite big!) is overlooking the park, just like a similar, even bigger one is doing across the road. they are modelled after those dogs with wobbly heads you see on car dashboards sometimes.

this park is called the Rembrandtpark, and has many small paths, all leading to the main pedestrian/biking path going straight across the park. so... you can run around quite a bit, without taking the same path twice. on monday we went here for a run. when we left home the sky was already darkening and it was surely going to rain, we just didnt know when... halfway it started, and rain came pouring down like crazy! within minutes we were soaked, but like a few others runners, we just continued to run, instead of waiting it out underneath this bridge (like many bikers did). it could have been a tiny bit warmer, and the big raindrops in my eyes were a bit annoying at times. other than that, i actually really liked running in the rain...

Hello spring!

the first day of spring almost felt like a summerday! it has never been warmer in the netherlands on this day before, although it was (and still is) very very windy!! it was around 20C in some places (70F),and many people visited the beach today.

the crocuses are already done blooming, the purple field i showed you recently is gone entirely... :( here, someplace else in the netherlands, you can still see some. i really liked this statue of the boy with a lamb he is somehow holding. yet i totally forgot to look at the artists name or the title of the sculpture...

Anonymous artist...

im very bad at street names, so i wouldnt be able to tell you where exactly i took this picture, but its in amsterdam.. :) i have to say, one of the reasons (among others) i am taking less pictures now, is because im usually riding a bike when i see something.... either its too busy to just stop, or im just too lazy, or we go too fast and i realize i saw something interesting when we passed it already. but here it was january 1st, there werent too many people on the street and we decided to finally stop. i had seen this sculpture before and i like it a lot! people call it "man with violin case", or "man who tries to catch line 10". google told me a lot about the sculpture. for example, it was black (or very dark blue) originally. then, in 1989  it was suddenly gone. the neighborhood had no clue what happened to it, and thought it was stolen. one day it came back; blue. in need of a touch up again, it was removed in 2011, and came back another shade of blue. people protested and it came back blue as above.

yet... the most interesting about this sculpture, is that the general public does not know the sculptor! in 1982 it just appeared, placed there during the night. between 1989 and 1995, 5 other sculptures were placed in various places in amsterdam. all during the night; the following morning they were just there. some speculated it was our former queen, but the municipality of amsterdam received these sculptures as a gift, provided that the artist remains anonymous..... allegedly, the sculptor is a medical doctor by day and an anonymous artist by night... :) how cool is that?! i should find the other sculptures as well... when i do, i will surely post them here.... (unless im on a bike and too lazy to stop....)

Canal bank

i showed you a picture of this sculpture before. on the 25th we went to have a look at it again, and now i went up close. weird i never did that before!! it continues to be such a lovely sculpture to look at... biebkriebels informed me of the artist; its burney bavelaar, and the title of the artwork is "waterfront" (now that i went to look at it more closely i saw the plaque mentioning the title etc). the artist works and lives in weesp herself, and there are a few more sculptures in the city! i should go and find them sometime.....

and look how sunny it was!! yesterday and today especially were quite different. lots of rain and wind again.....

Giant man

just like the last photo, this one is taken in the province flevoland. this is at the waters edge, and from many points you could see this sculpture. its truly gigantic; 26 metres tall (85ft), weighing 60.000 kilos. officially its called exposure and was made by antony gormley. but "the crouching man", or even "the shitting man" is what most people say when referring to this piece.

i found an interesting article that told me more about the background of the sculpture. it took 6 years to complete and was revealed in 2010. it is at the waters edge, right where the dykes are to stop the water and where the new land (flevoland) begins. to make it, the artist first cast himself in plaster in this crouching position. then this solid form was translated into a geometrical one using special software. all the metal was placed such, that every single piece was necessary for the construction, and they come together in nodal points like the heart, brain, etc.... his idea was that from afar you can clearly see the human shape, but the closer you get, the more abstract it becomes...

unfortunately, the sky was really grey when we were there, i think it would be really cool to see this sculpture on a brighter day. i didnt know whether we were allowed to walk up to it, there was a road block from where i took the picture... but maybe walking was permitted...

Big blue

although several of the artworks of the "fuck off 2" exhibit were not worth watching (they merely seemed made to provoke, but not in a sophisticated way, not making you think about china at all!!), a few things i did like. i liked the above "the big blue". it was one wall, covered with plastic bags filled with a blue liquid (5 tons of it!!), and it just looked like the ocean! i had a quite irresistible urge to stick a needle in those bags, but i didnt... (some were already a bit leaky though).

the liquid actually is some sort of toilet detergent used in china, named "toilet treasure". the artist wanted to make you think about industrialization, and how something resembling the sea and/or the ocean is actually just made of... something you flush down the toilet.

this afternoon we went to a food & vintage market not too far from our place. but there was too much food, and no vintage! the stuff they did try to sell was just old crap displayed in a fancy way so that they could ask ridiculous amounts of money, just by labeling it "vintage". all the hipsters running around probably just loved it, but it made me and tim miss "our" thrift store close to our apartment in the usa...! luckily we still have several of our usa-shipped boxes to unpack with some real vintage finds for just a small price... (but first we need to make some space here! and get some cupboards etc...)

Cool duckling

i did visit the ducklings on my walk yesterday. they were wearing cute straw hats and some had a runners number on them. this one is from last year april, when they all got a cape and looked much cooler, actually!

yesyes, they get dressed up for various occassions. i think thats really nice... here you can see a slideshow of some of their other outfits.

MFA exhibit

currently, the mfa has a nice exhibit featuring photographs by mario testino. its his first us exhibit and shows you, in huge size as you can see here. many celebrities you will have seen before. either in some sort of fashion photoshoot, partying or in just some weird and almost unrecognizable pose. some photos are well known shots, but its cool to see them so huge in a nicely lit museum, instead of in some magazine or CD cover.

we goto the museum of fine arts (MFA) quite often. the place is so terribly big! you can easily spend hours there... but that would be just a bit too much, so its nice to go often and just look at a portion of the museum. cheapos as we are, we are not members of the museum, but we know very well when we can go for free; each first weekend of the month since we store our money at the bank of america, and... each wednesday from 4 o'clock onwards you can visit the museum "by voluntary contribution". they suggest you pay 25 dollars (the current admission price, which is pretty high, i think), but you can pay whatever you want, or nothing at all, and the museum is open till 9.45! so... thats how we came to love this museum; i cant count the times we have been here during the past 2+ years....

But why?!

today it was black friday (the day just ended 5 minutes ago); the start of the christmas shopping season in the usa, and the day on which all stores give (or pretend to give) large discounts on their products. actually, it started already last night. when we drove home from the thanksgiving dinner, we passed a "big k market" (a department store, nothing special as far as i remember), where some 20 people were standing in line in front of the entrance. it was about 9. at home, i checked when the store would open; midnight!! i dont know how long they had been there already, but sitting outside, on thanksgiving (a seemingly very important holiday for americans) at 9 for a store to open at midnight just makes me wonder WHY?!

i think last year many stores opened "only" at 4 in the night, so i guess next year they might just be open on thanksgiving....  for us, it was our third black friday, and yet again we did not set foot in any store. i would have liked to observe the spectacle, but its hard to be present in such a huge crowd of people without being part of it, unless you can fly, no? tim found this video, and that actually made me happy i was not present, i would defenitely not have liked to be in such a shopping-crazy-crowd!

the sculpture was not made for black friday :) i saw it in new york, when we were there in june with my sister. its in the city hall park, until the end of this month, together with several other interesting works of art. the sculpture is named "memorial for unknown artist", by thomas schutte (here you can read more about it)

Anorexic rabbit....

or... what else comes to mind when seeing this sculpture...?

this sculpture is in the utrecht, the netherlands, and i have biked past it many, many times. ah yes, the scary rabbit again. until someone told me he always called it the anorexic rabbit. from then on thats what i thought as well. its right next to the bike path, across "het neude", a square lined with a lot of cafes. once i looked up why this statue was there, and found out its called "thinker on a rock", and... that the artist was inspired by.... the thinker from rodin! i totally saw that when i read that, but all those times i passed it really never crossed my mind..... the sculpture is there since 2002. the city council asked the people of utrecht what they wanted to see on the above location; they could choose from several things, among others this rabbit, or a fountain, etc. apparently, hardly anyone choose the rabbit, but the jury appointed by the city council did, and so the rabbit it was.... (so much for letting the public speak!). many were unhappy, its not even from a dutch artist, and neither is it "original"; there are 2 other casts made from this sculpture, both located in the usa (one in  st. louis and one in washington; i would like to see one here!). but... people have grown to like the rabbit, and it sometimes gets some carrots, or some clothing during winter.

the sculpture is from the british barry flanagan, and most of his sculptures are of skinny rabbits, in some pose or another. this is, according to wikipedia, because in the 1980s, "he perceived the image of a hare unveiling itself" before him and has used it since.....

i saw on google-doodles that rodin was born 172 years ago today....., and remembered i still hadnt posted the above-picture... :)

A sculpture

this is a huge new sculpture in the decordova museum in lincoln, not too far from boston. i cant count how often we have been here by now; its such a great museum! there is a large sculpture park, and inside the museum are ever changing exhibitions of modern art. sometimes i dont like them at all, sometimes its ok, and sometimes its great! the sculpture park is always great; the grounds are so beautiful, even without the sculptures. it used to be free entrance with your bank of america card every first weekend in the month, but not anymore, unfortunately. but now its free every first wednesday of the month, and its always free if you come by bike (how nice is that?!).

the above sculpture is named lincoln, and was made specifically for the site by dewitt godfrey. here you can read more about it, and see it from another angle; i guess we have seen it 2 or 3 times now, and with the light and all i really had a hard time taking a picture i liked. i settled for this one because of the little boy; it also shows how huge it is! (you can walk through a few of the bubbles).

this was last saturday when the weather was really great. today it was quite chilly... and this weekends forecast does not look too good, colder weather is really coming our way...

Please climb!

"for your safety, do not climb the sculpture" is a sign that always accompanies large sculptures that seem to be there just for climbing.... the sign actually also accompanies sculptures or other large objects you never thought of climbing. until you saw the sign, that is.....  well, this life-size replica of lady liberty's face is an "interactive sculpture", meaning its meant for climbing! and climbed she was, mostly by children, it was lovely to watch. its called "face of liberty", made by zaq landsberg.

after i had seen a picture of this sculpture somewhere, i just had to see it for myself! its on governers island, a small island just half a mile off the southern tip of manhattan. having been to new york numerous times, and seen quite a bit of it, i have to admit i had never heard of governors island! so, that was cool, as we always try to see something in new york we havnt seen before. the island is accessible by a free ferry (from manhattan or brooklyn), but its only open during summer, and then only during weekends. there is art, a fort, sometimes there are festivals and there is a lot of green space where you can just hang out. ah, and beautiful views of manhattan! i really enjoyed walking around there, and wouldnt mind to visit it again sometime. i took quite some photos (this was back in june), so perhaps i will show you more some other time.

Dam angels

when we were in las vegas in may, we visited the hoover dam. it was after closing time, so not much was going on. we walked around, saw the massive concrete and all the beautiful ornaments on the dam; it was built in the 1920s and 1930s, and you can see that. i thought it was really pretty. but to be honest, somehow i thought the dam itself would be even more massive and impressive. perhaps because of what ive all seen on tv of it? tim was disappointed i was not more impressed, i think... :)

but... i was very much impressed by the statues above. 2 angels. their toes all shiny (i read later thats because of all the tourists that touch the toes; its supposed to bring good luck in vegas while gambling... blablabla). this is a memorial dedicated to those who died during the construction of the dam, the sculptures (and more details on the dam) were made by oskar hansen. 

112 people died during the construction of the dam. the first being mr tierney, who drowned in 1922 while looking for an ideal spot for the dam. sadly, the last death was his son, who died exactly 13 years later, while working on the construction of the dam. in between these 2 angels there is a plaque that reads: "they died to make the desert bloom". more than 4 tons of bronze were used for these 30-feet tall statues, which were dedicated in 1935.

i had a hard time taking a good picture of them (in real they were so very beautiful!!), but i was kind of satisfied with this one... :) i would defenitely not mind going back there to see them again, but then when the water is high... (the water was very low when we were there)