op het oppervlak

Reconstructing Stevens

Hi Niels,

This is a base for our final film, as you can see, we are literally re-constructing Stevens.

Tonight at 20.30 in the Van Gogh museum we have a talk with Leonieke Daalder about the blog and the works of Stevens.

we wish you could have been there tonight,

Yael and Yafit

Sad tidings we bring.

A woman is standing, or sitting, reading a letter. Trying to control her self, even if she is alone in the room.  Maybe someone is leaving, or never coming back. All the kinds of loss. She will not breakdown. She is crawling into herself. Only there, inside, she breaks down.

Alone.

Stevens made many paintings of women reading letters- receiving tidings. Some of them, we know, were letters from masters who were sending the mistresses away, as they become too old (mostly around 22 years old). We have collected some works from different disciplines and artists that Commemorate this moment.

Yael and Yafit

De dienaren van het Interieur

Hello again Niels,

In the article ‘Kapitaal en Décor’, the author  Michel Draguet  refers to the objects in Stevens paintings as ”[…]de dienaren van het interieur” – in our free translation- ‘servants of the interior’. We think that the women in Stevens paintings play a similar roll. By treating the objects and the women in the same means of visual techniques, the women in Stevens painting become also part of the décor.

We have to ask ourselves if this is a conscious choice of Stevens, a choice that reflects clear social critique, or is it our days perception – only the way we  ‘read’ the paintings now?

We collected some art works that for us connecting to the subject of a woman as servants of their surroundings.

Yael and Yafit

'Kapitaal en Décor', Michel Draguet

Ofelia, Gregory Crewdson

Gustav Klimt

Saskia Radovic

Seated Woman , Pablo Picasso.

The kitchen, Marina Avramovits

The Gorilla Girls

Hi Niels,

We wish we could come with our Bikini’s to your swimming pool party, but we are both out of the country. How was it? We were too late in reacting to your question, we hope you made some artistic moves, can we see something online?

You brought up statistics about the position of women in the arts.  According to the Gorilla Girls, 83 percent of the objects of nudity are of women, but only 3 percents of the artists belongs to the female sex. When we informed my mother about this striking statistics, she replied immediately that she wouldn’t be surprised if  the 17% cases of male nudity are made by homosexual artists. So according to my mom, women artists still don’t turn males into objects.

If you look at other statistics outside of the art world, it is very shocking to realize how many power potions man posses in compressing to women. If we also take in consideration the physical limitation of women, such as the fertility age that put women at the boarders of the age and society, women’s freedom is still very limited.

The photos under are from an Installation by Yael. In this case she was the subject and the object of her project.  This work is autobiographic, and as Yael being a woman that is a big part in her biography..

Yael and Yafit

Woman as Design

Yael en Yafit kwamen het boek tegen van Stephen Bayley ‘Woman as Design’. Dit boek werpt enigsinds wat licht op wat wij proberen uit te zoeken. Het boek onderzoekt van dichtbij het fenomeen vrouw door de ogen van kunst en design.
Het is een interessante verwijzing in verband met de discussie over de vrijgevochten vrouw.

what ever happened to the heroes?

Een duikeling maken in het kapsel van Amy Winehouse

Hallo weer Niels,

We hebben veel gelachen van jouw vorige bericht en en we hebben er lang over gesproken: het Nederlands werkwoord ‘vrijen’ komt oorspronkelijk vanuit  het woord ‘vrijheid’, zitten vrouwen in een gevangenis van hun uiterlijk? kranten headlines over Britney’s dikke buik na haar zwangerschap, of wie weet, een duikeling maken in het kapsel van Amy Winehouse.. We hadden te veel ideeën en impressies, dus laten we concreet zijn. Hier zijn we momenteel.

Na onze Google zoektocht en voordat we Paris Hilton een total make
over gaven, hebben we besloten  dichter bij huis te blijven – we
zijn vrouwen… vrijgevochten?
Nou, dat is zeker een interessant onderwerp om te onderzoeken. We
hebben dus besloten om de vrouwen die ons beeld van vrouwelijkheid
hebben gevormd te onthullen . zijn ze geëmancipeerd?

we showed you ours, will you show us yours?