As a curator, in museum Beelden aan Zee, I exhibited the Gorille enlevant une Femme, by Emmanuel Fremiet dated 1887, in an exhibition of French and Belgian animal sculptors in 2011. The... Show moreAs a curator, in museum Beelden aan Zee, I exhibited the Gorille enlevant une Femme, by Emmanuel Fremiet dated 1887, in an exhibition of French and Belgian animal sculptors in 2011. The confrontation with, and my great surprise about this sculpture (a gorilla abducting a woman) led to this research. Just imagine: you walk into a living room in an appartment on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris around 1890, and on a side table, one discovers a bronze sculpture: a gorilla abducting a woman. Such a sculpture does not suit our sense of taste. I suspected that this sculpture would represent more than just 'a curious piece of kitsch'. The resulting research in my dissertation led to many things: it turned out that the artist was world-famous in his time, it turned out that the gorilla had only been discovered in 1847, and it turned out that a few more gorilla sculptures had been made by Fremiet, the first as early as 1859. Furthermore, I discuss the entrance of the gorilla into zoology, the theme of the abduction of women in art and the use of the image for nationalistic and anti-Semitic purposes. The relevance of this research lies in the use of all kinds of other disciplines, which results in a new art-historical image of nineteenth century art and sculpture. The study also addresses nineteenth century issues: colonialism, the poor position of women, antisemitism, nationalism and our relationship to the animal kingdom are related to technical and iconographical interpretations of the Fremiet gorillas. Show less
Central to this research is the Urban Future-project, which consists of a large archive of artworks made from 2002 until now. The original question underpinning this project was: what... Show moreCentral to this research is the Urban Future-project, which consists of a large archive of artworks made from 2002 until now. The original question underpinning this project was: what influence do chaos, entropy and fragmentation have on the viability of the rapidly developing urbanizing world? In the course of the research project, the (literature and field) explorations led to the assumption that there is a demonstrable and necessary link between the quality of life in the city and vital social cohesion on the one hand and chaos, entropy and fragmentation on the other. In the artistic part of the research focuses on the question: is it possible to make the supposed connection between quality of urban life and chaos, entropy and fragmentation visible in artwork and, if so, how? In the written dissertation, working methods and strategies are contextualized and analyzed. The visual part derives from an artist's position which uses non-verbal, sensorial strategies to reach new insights. It mainly focuses on the visual and aesthetic possibilities of aspects of fragmentation, chaos and entropy because Scholten considers these aspects, as productive forces, to be the core of the experience of urbanization. Show less
This thesis is about the special relationship that the spectator enters into with sculpture. ‘Sculpture’ here means: immobile objects or three- dimensional bodies in one or more parts, deliberately... Show moreThis thesis is about the special relationship that the spectator enters into with sculpture. ‘Sculpture’ here means: immobile objects or three- dimensional bodies in one or more parts, deliberately made inside the domain of the visual arts. This thesis argues how sculpture, in the first moment, makes the spectator speechless. When thereafter the spectator opens himself up to the sculpture, he feels invited by the work to fully apply his language skills. He finds meaning by repeatedly and precisely describing all he sees in the sculpture. By researching critically how he came to create his interpretation, the interpretation becomes a reading that transcends the private interpretation of the spectator. Perhaps this way of perceiving is applicable to all sorts of artworks, but in the case of sculpture it is particularised in the relations with the sculpture, due to the continued presence of the sculpture as a body. The meeting with the statue is experienced bodily and the being together in the world stimulates the research in a way that is comparable to the meeting of human beings. Show less
While the sculpted object is so obviously carved from hard and lifeless marble, at the same time it has the capacity to conjure up a seemingly living presence of soft, undulating flesh, dramatic... Show moreWhile the sculpted object is so obviously carved from hard and lifeless marble, at the same time it has the capacity to conjure up a seemingly living presence of soft, undulating flesh, dramatic movements, and fluttering draperies. As its apparent life is persistently obscured by its materiality and its materiality denied by hints of life, sculpture challenges the beholder, is cause for confusion or frustration. This was no less the case in seventeenth-century Rome—in fact, the double character of sculpture and the manner in which the beholder coped with this was a central issue in contemporary discussions of art. This study explores the complicated interaction between beholder and sculpture in seventeenth-century Rome, asking how we may understand the manner in which the beholder engaged the sculpted object. Two lines of inquiry are adopted to approach this problem. In the first place a poetic discourse is reconstructed and analyzed, which, in the way it persistently thematizes the beholder’s intricate interaction with the sculpted object, provides a set of central concerns occupying contemporary beholders. And secondly, insights from modern-day psychology are applied to gain further understanding of the way in which beholders dealt with the complicated nature of sculpture. Show less
