Air, Water, Soil
Sarah Daher, Menno Hiele, Marjolijn Boterenbrood
het Glazen Huis, April 3 – May 15
Opening Sunday April 3, 4 – 6 PM
In the exhibition Air, Water, Soil the work of three artists who focus on the basic elements of life are brought in dialogue with each other.
Sarah Daher Air Culture
Plants can communicate through the air, sending messages by releasing chemical molecules. Air Culture proposes a new use of these natural compounds. Living plants combined with technology can provide us with personalized air, enriched with specific chemical properties. This enriched air can have different impacts on our physical and psychological well-being, depending on the plant species, its environmental conditions and the life cycle of the plant.
Air Culture is an interdisciplinary project in between design and science; technology and nature. By connecting different fields of research, design can merge the human aspect with scientific knowledge to bring up new realities that address latent needs. Acknowledging plant’s chemical vocabulary will not only change the way we relate to them but also the way we perceive and consume air.
Air culture is a starting point to question the value of air, and propose a future scenario where volatile emissions from plants become part of our daily lives, a new habit to incorporate into our routine. What if in the future, the same way we farm for food we will farm for air?
Menno Hiele, Hydrosculptures
Original function
In this series of sculptures Menno Hiele explores the relation between natural materials and the man-made object. The combination of flowing water, man-made objects, cut wood, electronics and living plants gives these sculptures the opportunity to gain life. What is a piece of wood and what functions can it have? Can it have the same properties again as it had when it was living material?
These sculptures have the same properties as, for instance, trees; they grow and have a sap stream which flows through tubes and pipes. By applying natural elements in these objects, they become a new and living organism.
Marjolijn Boterenbrood, Sporen
Marjolijn Boterenbrood explored during one year life under the ground of the Amstelpark and the nearby Gijsbrecht van Aemstelpark. One of the results of this project is a series of photographs of the soil which will be presented as soil – horizontally. On April 17 she will present a map she designed of the world beneath our feet and discuss the project in depth together with guests.
Sara van der Heide, The Garden
The film is a travelogue in form and colour of her yearlong presence in her allotment garden near Amsterdam. With her camera she has followed the leaves changing colour and shape; the upcoming, decomposing and dying of plants and other inhabitants and passers by of the garden. Through the cycle of the garden, cyclic energy and time speak out. And offer a model for a reconsideration of time and value. A model that follows the biological energies and rhythms, and considers not only growth, but also decay, death and stillness. Processes often overseen in a capitalist society which emphasizes the spectacular and (excessive) linear growth.
From April 2013 to April 2014
In an allotment garden of 330 m2
Tuinwijck, Amsterdam
Camera and montage: Sara van der Heide
Color correction: Sara van der Heide and Guy Molin
Technical guidance: Guy Molin
Camera stand-in: Kyle Tryhorn
Thank you: Nelly Voorhuis
Commissioned by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution
Brochure Air, Water, Soil
