Home - Monday, May 21, 2012

Jay van der Reijden March 2007 Well, its ten months on since my last update. I am back from Beijing which was wonderful and exciting with some very fustrating bits inbetween! I have now had three solo shows in the last 6 months and I am completely exhausted! The shows were great and looked amazing, and perhaps you managed to see one of the them. For right now I am not doing another solo show for a good 18 months - two years. It's way way more hard work than you'ld ever think and I dont need that kind of pressure for a while. I have been dieing to break out of my current mold and do something radically different. So I'm now going to take out the time to follow that up and just relax and make work. I have also pulled out the oil paints after a 20 year gap so we'll see where that heads and if I'm willing to show anyone the results! As I update the site over the next two weeks you'll see the completed works from China - a really brilliant collection of work I have to say, which are now currently in the Netherlands. In addition I have also completed four stone sculptures in New Zealand in the last four months. On top of the marble work I have also been casting bronzes of my models, so please also be sure to check those out. May 2006 I am now in China on a long-term residency to see and hear what I am up to here please click onto the China page April 2006 The latest completed piece is Homage to Winged Victory, inspired by Winged Victory in the Louvre. This is one of my favorite sculptures and last time I was in the Louvre I organized myself to pass by the stairwell in which it is placed as many times as possible! I created this sculpture at the 2006 Hamilton Sculpture Symposium, where I had great fun, and it is now on display at the Catchment Gallery ( www.catchment.co.nz ) in  Nelson, New Zealand, where it will be shown until the end of May 2006. In the middle of this month I'll be going to Beijing, China for a two and a half month residency at the Red Gate Gallery. I am very excited for this opportunity as it will be my first long-term residency and my first time in China. I am hoping to study how the role of women is changing in China. We tend to think of women in China as held down and suppressed, but the way that they are being portrayed in chinese films is starting to show a completely different way of being. I want to look at this an hope it will be reflected in my work. The pieces I create during this residency will be shipped to Holland for my solo exhibition at Kunsthal Dierkje Koek in Utrecht. The show opens September 15th 2006 and runs until the end of October 2006. The Basic Bio  Jay van der Reijden (35), born in Australia to Dutch parents, has lived in five different countries including New Zealand. She returned here in 2002. She has carved stone for seven years and has sculpted for nine. Jay trained with masters in the United States, England and Greece, carving only by hand using traditional techniques and tools. Annually she attends multiple New Zealand symposia and carves overseas from June to August. One of her early works is held by the Tout Quarry Sculpture Park in England.   Jay’s central aim as an artist is to create work that contains a timeless quality. Her artwork has meaning and thought behind it, supported by an appreciation of all extant art. These influences result in an oeuvre that returns to a classical training and appreciation of art.   Jay’s artwork describes boats, birds and mythical beasts, reflecting Shona, Haida, and Gothic influences. Primarily the concept of travel – freedom and escape – is what draws her to these subjects, but also the symbolism of travel as associated with communication, message bearing and prophecy. Birds too, are connected with wisdom and the soul, and alternatively conveying the soul.

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