Nature matter(S) continues
In early spring 2023, Vrijhof Culture launched a longer-running series of visual art exhibitions around the theme of nature, an inspiration for many artists.
A series that will cover different ways of dealing with this inspiration; the poetic side, protest, nature as a model for design, and so more directions will be covered in this series NATURE MATTER(S).
The first exhibition last March, we focused on artists who have long expressed themselves in a way related to the beauty, ruggedness, the poetic, the indomitable in nature. The wonder. Linked to this was a participation exhibition where the public was allowed to respond to the work on display through texts and homemade imagery.
This second in the series will deal with protest and the cornered nature as the reason for it. The dire situation in which nature increasingly finds itself in the wider world and close to home and how artists seek or want to bring a message to it. And protest too can manifest itself in different ways; shouting, loud and clear, with humour, love and empathy and perhaps even whispering. What is certain is that the invited artists of this exhibition do not sit still and watch the world go by but express their concerns, amazement and their fears through their art.
This exhibition was created in close cooperation with Anika Franke: artist, illustrator, AKI lecturer, writer, Alléé Rentréé festival organiser, in short creative thinker. And in cooperation with Karin Vaneker: after a long scientific career traded or actually applied her expertise to 'practical climate action' and the arts, builder of worm hotels, coffee grounds compost and bird feeders, also known in Enschede as city farmer Karin Compost. Together, Anika and Karin created the booklet "Do you recognise a tree in need" about the poor state of trees in Enschede.
Exhibiting artists
In addition to work by Anika and Karin, you can also see work by:
Patyt Reyes: fights for climate justice & cultivates community Tankstation (community art gallery). PhD candidate - Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies at the University of Twente. We highlight her work mainly on the digital and community aspect.
Emma van Benthem: Illustrations about the beauty of Dutch nature, made exclusively with natural pigments. An almost soft and whispered protest against what is being lost.
Willie Darktrousers: Drawings that use lots of color and raw humor to ask the big questions about how we treat this fragile planet. "WTF is going on with the rainbow?".
Ivo Kamphuis: A nature lover at heart and his protest is not for nothing the series "The Animal Crusade" in which the world is a flipped version, animal versus human. In revolt!
