Hereby I present my latest artworks to you; ‘Enable & Disable (diptych)
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 50 x 1cm each
2025
Enable & Disable – acryl op canvas – 50 x 50 cm- 2025
Enable and disable; these words hold power to switch on or off. Each time we are asked to enable or disable we take a turn in one direction. This trivial action may have implications.
As individuals we sometimes seem and feel powerless but together we can be a force of change, if we choose to.
Sadly, the global unregulated free market in its current form has been proving destructive to the planet but is now endangering our democracies as well.
At the root of every product is a producer, but then there is also, ultimately, a user. We are that users. Without a user a producer is a king without a kingdom, an empty, harmless shell. So what we as consumers do, buy and use matters. We are able to enable and disable. Switch on and off. With every purchase, we enable someone at the end of the line. We are able to make kings rise and fall and disable or enable anyone who can or can’t handle our confidence and saves or steals our future.
Vanaf 14 april |19.30 – 22.00u| start de Idealen-avond- school Zwolle in mijn atelier aan de Rieteweg 10. Hier begeleid ik jou van aspirant idealist tot praktijk idealist.
In mijn werk als beeldend kunstenaar doe ik eigenlijk niets anders dan een uitlaatklep vormen voor mijn gedachten en een vorm zoeken voor mijn idealen. Soms reikt het verder dan de kunst. Zoals nu…
Sinds kort ben ik een van de docenten aan de Idealenschool, de praktijk school voor idealen. De Idealenschool is een initiatief van Johannes van den Akker en Suzan Doodeman (De Ceuvel, Amsterdam) en het vindt plaats in in 6 steden in Nederland en België waaronder ook Zwolle en om precies te zijn, in mijn atelier aan de Rieteweg 10.
In zes avonden ga je van ideaal naar idee naar doen. Ik wil als ervaren idealist en nu als docent mensen in beweging zetten. Ik reik inspirerende voorbeelden aan uit eigen praktijk en gebruik handige tools om de idealen en bijbehorende stappen in kaart te brengen. Aan het eind van de cursus heb je ontdekt wat je ideaal is en hoe jij daar vanuit jouw talent en mogelijkheden aan kunt bijdragen.
Ik heb de overtuiging dat mijn creatieve geest, gekoppeld aan een praktische inslag, anderen ook op weg kan helpen met het realiseren van hun idealen.
De Zwolse cursus start 14 april van 2025 van 19.30 – 22.00u.
Bijeenkomst 1- staat in het teken van: Heel Goed Kijken en Alles Is Mogelijk in de tweede bijeenkomst, bijeenkomst 3 en 4 staan in het teken van Experiment in de 5e bijeenkomst ga je van experiment naar realiteit in Maak Het Waar en in week 6 Vieren We Het Resultaat.
Voorbehoud: om te kunnen starten met de Idealen school heb ik een minimum van 5 a 6 inschrijvingen nodig, als er niet genoeg inschrijvingen zijn, komt deze serie lessen te vervallen en krijg je je geld terug. Dan komt er mogelijk een nieuwe inschrijvingsronde in het najaar van 2025.
Heeft u vragen aan Marit bel 06 20661723|| Vragen aan de Idealenschool Amsterdam:0644648329 | suzan@hoedanwel.nl
Wonderful news, my painting ‘ Last Gatekeepers Of Lost Revolutions’ has been shortlisted in the Singulart International Women’s Day 2025 Award!
The jury states that it stands out with its unique perspective on the theme of (female) Bravery.
Acryl op canvas 100/150 cm
About the work itself: Hovering female figures spreading their arms wide open and floating around. They are jumping and moving simultaneously. They are clearly present and strong. The last gatekeepers is referring to a world where young men, the proverbial sons, are sent to war by other men. This is why, I believe, when women rule, wars will end. No mother in her right mind will ever send her child voluntarily to a war, any war.
Last Gatekeepers Of Lost Revolutions is part of the Metropolitan series and is currently on display in Bruxelles handled by Bernice, Art Rental and Gallery in Temse.
Sea Of Tranquility – acrylic on canvas – 155 x 90 cm – 2025
This painting features 7 alienated versions of me.
I am not truly at ease with the concept of AI, but as an image creator, I felt the need to know where the future of image creation is heading. So I started my first investigation into AI in Photoshop.
I used a recent picture of myself and simply instructed the conceptual toolbar: ‘’improve‘’. The result of this one instruction was a bit of horror meets a VR-loving alien. A surprising and baffling introduction to AI, but not really a compliment.
I now imagine that in its eyes, my request for improvement could only lead to something that would visually resemble a physical version of itself, just like the creator who created humankind in his own image. As uncanny as this outcome was, it inspired me to create this canvas on which a more sympathetic version of this raw first artificial draft, times seven, rises from a restless sea of tranquillity.
What AI made of me
I thank AI for this inspiration, but I am not sure if I will become a frequent flyer, though; probably I will and without knowing that I do, just like the rest of us. She is beyond us.
I’m not sure our lives will get better with AI and all that it embeds and will encapsulate in the future.
If it were up to me (it is not), I would rather live life with all its beautiful, natural imperfections and oddities with the certainty of death than become a servant of a perfect faceless system with a poor imagination.
In Our Nature 2024- Acrylic on canvas- part of the Side Show series
The blue letters on a paper bag smiled at me from the roadside, It has been there for a while, at least a few days. Yet it hasn’t been so long that either the blue is discoloured or the bag half-decayed. It still looks fresh. Next to the bag, scraps of what was probably a burger. A piece of grey matter in yellow-pink goo hangs bloodlessly from a white bag, with green limp lettuce leaves and a sliver of tomato as irrefutable evidence of knowledge of good nutricion. A pair of soulless and limp fries stick out of a bright red cardboard container. A striped straw protrudes triumphantly from a large white cup with plastic cap which combined with the red tray of fainted fries gives a festive look. What a happy meal this must have been.
Everywhere I look I find these silent testimonies of feeding frenzy that apparently had to take place then and there and that after a big burp of pleasure suddenly became too much. Was it too heavy on the stomach to move what was left just an inch?
Evidently, that which was picked up, wheeled around and nibbled on full of desire and gluttony had to be disassociated from as soon as possible, immediately in fact.
Those who love blue letters can move from A to B while scrabbling. Those less fond of it see mostly a correlation.
Escape Route X is the title of an educational multimedia and cutting-edge social game. Students from the Social Work programme will engage in an experience exercise by stepping briefly ‘ in a playful manner ’ into the shoes of a refugee.
Pilot project Escape Route X – Deltion College Zwolle
4 groups will be made to play the game simultaneously over 90 minutes. In the game, students assume the identities of fictional refugees: Chin Ho from North Korea (Asia), Ali Osman from Sudan (North Africa), Jimpa from Tibet (Asia) and Jamilah from Syria (Middle East). This identity determines their starting point, means of transport and home situation, thus their place at the gaming table.
To properly get into character, players are given a passport. This passport contains their character’s brief life story and reason for departure/flight. Although the characters are fictional, the stories are penned from collected stories of real refugees.
4 Game distributors are responsible for issuing the game passports, situation cards and start/travel money but also act as a question guide for the players.
These game handlers are experts by experience who have a flight past themselves. Courtesy of the Foundation Voor Elkaar, Zwolle, the following expert by experience will assist me: Noor Ba- Hashwan (23) from Yemen, Abdullah al Mohamed (25) from Syria, Hasmik Karapetyan (32) from Armenia. And Mustafa Ahmed (22) from Somalia by means of theSamen Omhoog foundation.
Afterwards, they will also give an insight into their own migration stories and answer questions.
By doing so, we hope to give more insight into refugee issues here and in the country of origin, in times of polarisation and increasing intolerance. At the same to give it a face and a personal story.
We would like to contribute to a more open attitude towards newcomers.
This pilot was created in collaboration with Petra Turan, with support from the municipality of Zwolle. Petra is Senior Lecturer at Deltion College/ Visual artist, MSc Design Driven Innovation/ Moderator eTwinning group and IVET Community/Blended Coach)
This game was developed by me and artist Mark van Enk in 2011 entitled Flight 050511 for the Liberation Day festival in Zwolle. I then further developed it into a full-fledged board game. With the help of Codename Future, Emiel Sikkema and teacher Wim Hilberdink and his medialogue students at SG Thorbecke Zwolle, I conducted research to optimise the game and make it interesting for a young audience. I then further developed it into what it is today with input from Jolan van de Water, Patrick Pelman, Stan Vergeer and Petra Turan.
