I make concept art for a book based on the story of Rashid Novoire. The main-character will be a firefly. First draft, then we will present it to a publisher.
First scetch With Rashid The death of the firefly The refugees Through the desertStop singing! Insects clean the cityIn a land far away…
This assignment was given by filmdirector Tjepke Zijlstra for a movie maybe an installation. The question was how to visualize energie. Based on an accident he had in Italy with energy flashes and a spirit keeping an eye on him. He didn’t know if he was dead or alive.
Via the paintings I work towards the translation into a Graphic Score
Graphic score unfinished
The Mascotte of The North of Amsterdam
The Mascotte of The North of Amsterdam, designed by me as part of the project Mooimakers (Thanks to the municipality of Amsterdam and Woning Stichting Ymere) with the input of the inhabitants. Concept art for a 3D printed version at the IJplein, there where the ferry comes and goes 🙂 not in production but a wish!
The Hand of my Father:
On March 23 1946 my father, then Soldier Jan/Johnny Fakkeldij lost his hand while cleaning the woods in Drenthe from ammunition left from the second world war that was all laying around. As he stood in one of the large warehouses, where he had to store it, a grenade began to tap in his right hand. He didn’t want to throw it away because then that would have caused a huge disaster and all the ammunition would explode, people would get killed. The whole space was ‘one enormous bomb’. He switched the grenade from his right hand (he was right handed) to his left and pulled his arm with the grenade into the air. It went off. He was seriously injured, lost his hand and partly his arm, but saved lives.
While he was coming out of a coma, two high-ranking military officers were standing by his bed who wanted him to sign a document that it was all his own fault in order to avoid liability because they had put all those young soldiers to work there without instructions.
I want a monument dedicated to him and what he did, a grave for his hand and recognition for his heroic deed! Jan/ Johnny was 18 years old.
A song I wrote for my Father (excerpt)
The explosion echoed, he paid with pain, His hand, shattered, forever changed A scream filled the universe, his life flashed his eyes His dreams and hopes, nothing to remain
(Chorus) In the heart of chaos, a shard found its mark, Straight to his heart, a wound so dark. But in a twist of fate, a miracle in strife, Family photos in his pocket, sparing his life.
(Break) He never got honor but received hate For all the lives he saved That hall would have exploded If he had thrown the grenade away
Recovering from the darkness, half in coma’s grip, High officers at his bed, wanted blame on his lips. So that it would not be in the armies name To bring boys in danger with no instructions, a shame
One of the photos my father had in his chest pocket, with a hole of a shard from the grenade.A splinter from the grenade went through and stopped on his skin
This solo performance was created around the lovestory between Vincent Van Gogh and Sien, whom he wanted to merry. All went wrong, Vincent left and Sien drowned herself. I created a portrait of Sien based on the letters and sketches of Vincent. I still work on this project as I want to include more songs I wrote.
A graphic score related to the war in the Ukraine by Russia. The title is inspired by the play: Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol, about a minor civil servant getting mad.
The young men who live in the North call themselves Noord-Siders. So that became the name of the mascot. It has all kind of references like the Ferry, the waterlilies and fishes and “the arm” is a peat shovel. It is wearing the cap of a workman form the 1930 tees who worked in the harbours and shipbuilding in Amsterdam Noord. And it has the coloured rainbow rope related to the diversity.
I would like to think of it as a male/female figure. The print of it will be huge and is acquired by Property Rochdale.
Graphic Scores: The land, The lockdown, The revelation. Sound by Reniet Vrieze.
Jelle Althuis from Calefax RietkwintetThe land, The lockdown, The revelation. This triptych has been in the online exhibition of the Amsterdam Museum. Composer Reniet Vrieze created a music-piece on this graphic score.
This opera in the make is a creation from composer Thomas Geerts and me. Thomas composed the music from this score. I draw and write the libretto. And I have created some ceramic 3D world.
A graphic score about the WWI. What does fear sound like, was also the title from my solo exhibition in the Boterhal in Hoorn 2021. What is interesting about the settings of this score is that you have the sounds in the tunnels under the ground vs the sounds of the Flaunders Fields, the burned grounds. I added the sounds of the world of the dead. Sadly it is still applicable to any war.
Crach is an assignment from director film maker Tjepke Zijlstra. He had been in a severe car-crash in Italy and asked me to make visuals based on his experiment just after the crash, when he walked outside while he had no idea anymore where he was. There was some ‘guide’ beside him all the time and he had flashbacks in the form of energy. A very challenging and abstract question that I really love to put my teeth in! As a research I had a conversation with also someone who had two times a nearly dead experience.
The Crash in wording Henk left Tjepke rightA talk about the unfinished works, a project in progress with Tjepke Zijlstra
At Arti et Amititea, In Amsterdam. I created a groups presentation based on the way the surrealist drew together. All the artist could make a drawing before the opening, than cover it with a white sheet leaving some lines outside, so that the next artists could use them for their drawings. At the fernissage I took off all the white sheets and unveiled the complete artwork.
Homeless
Amsterdam is the city in which I works and live. I saw the people sleeping on the street and in the porches, so I decided to create work around that theme. I started photographing the homeless and also people sleeping save and sound in their own bed. I visited the polluted houses of people who were reported missing, taken in custody or went to a mental hospital. Most of the houses were filled tot the ceiling with waste and were representing the lives of those who lost it or left. The bike is in the collection of The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
U Select, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam U select, detailHairpiece with memories Hair Piece
When my mother died, we had to empty the house where I was born. Before I left I made an installation on the bed of my parents from young to their portraits that i drew when dead.
I also went to the police, the department for detectives, who taught me how to make fingerprints visible. I made all the fingerprints visible in my parental home, showing all the marks we made and left as a family.
The artworks are based and inspired by a Flood from 1918. My work was exhibited in the historical churches and in Museum The Speeltoren at Monnickendam, one of the villages that had suffered from the Flood. The work was based on a self written story and consisted form visuals sounds stories and designed smells.
I was asked by the historical physician Leo van Bergen to make drawings for his touching book Amongst the dying. From that point on I got more interest in this terrible war and created more works. I had several exhibitions with these works
A perfume made for the Franciscus exhibition at the Fries Museum Leeuwarden
I saw the famous having their own perfume. I wanted one too.
The process of creation could be a performance and the bottles pieces of art. My first perfume was created around 1969. Golden Ophelius, a perfume men dream of and Hamletta, a wet dream for women. My first publication was in the Penthouse 😊. I went out on the street to ask people to smell so that I could take there portrait of them.
At a certain point I decided to create perfumes form places and spaces. I was invited to create a perfume from Lombok, a part of the City Utrecht where I was born ( L’ eau de Lombok) and also to create one from new developed part of Amsterdam (New Domain). And I created perfumes from the museums where I was showing my work, Frans Hals Museum (Frans!), Fodor Museum (Fodeur) I then interviewed visitors and asked them to smell my perfume and photographed them. They could download their portrait from the internet where I published them. I only show a small selection here.
Smelling my perfume With my perfumes on the radio. The anchorman smells. Perfumebottle Frans! For the Frans Hals MuseumThe lit is the man, the house is the bottle Hamletta a wet dream for WomenClose up from the box round the bottle GAZ, perfume from the Westergasfabriek The perfume bottle from Fodeur from the Frans Hals MuseumL’Eaux de Lombok, detail of the bottle Perfume bottles and their boxes.
Drawing and painting under hypnoses
I asked prof. drs. Jan willem van der Does for an art project with me. He is Clinical Psychologist specialised in hypnoses. While working with him and with a hypnosis tape we made together, i started drawing and painting.
Courtesy of The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam: The Gatekeepers of Heaven and Hell. Big drawings 150 x 210 each, Siberian crayon. I made a series of these drawings.
I worked in the Mail Art Gallery/Archive of Ulises Carrion. He had the first mail art gallery/archive in the world named Other Books And So at the Bloemgracht in Amsterdam.
Steve Random USA Christo and Jeanne Claude NYEdgardo Antonio Vigo Argentine Ulises Carrion The Netherlands Ryosuke Cohen Japan Alberto Harriman Brasil Machteld van Buren USAGuy Schreanen BelgiumNene The Netherlands LUIS Argentinië TAM productions The Netherlands Arte Poststale the boxed edition The Netherlands Arte Poststale. The boxed edition Metallic Avau BelgiumCarlo Pittore USADJ at Fomt England Jos S. The Netherlands Kunsthaus Zürich Mail art that was sent to me as a response to what I had sent or what was sent to me for the exhibitions I organized .
Book-art: Books that are created as a piece of art. They could have any form but are having a sequence. Like for instance Arte Postale (See pics). Book-art was a term first used by Ulises Carrion from Other Books and so Archive in Amsterdam.
Stamp-Art, Rubber stamps: As what you sent is most of the time relatively small, and often in a edition, rubber stamps are really handy tools to create some art work.
Stamp-Art, Postage stamps: Creating your own postage stamps as miniature form of art adds a lot of beauty to your mail.
Ephemera: everything else like posters and flyers.
Ulises Carrion in his Gallery/ Archive Other Books and So
