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The following pages are a collection of items that outline my art, where I have been and a little of where I am heading... Click on these links to see the the separate pages..
Artist Statement Current Update
C.V. Jay van der Reijden Solo Exhibitions Emma’s Café, Oamaru NZ, Feb 2004 Public Exhibitions Lower Thames Street Temporary Art Space, Oamaru NZ, Nov 2003 - Mar 2004 Group Exhibitions Exeter Academy of Fine and Applied Arts Summer Exhibition, Exeter UK, Jun - Jul 2004 Gallery Representatives Pukeko Junction Regional Wine Centre & Gallery, Leithfield, Canterbury NZ, Mar 2004 - Present Public Collections Private Collections Netherlands: Utrecht Symposiums Kiakoura Art in the Dark, Kaikoura NZ, 2004 Residencies Intensives Grants Pratt Fine Arts Center, Work-Study Assistanceship, 1997-2002, us$6000 Press Squirt, 17 Apr 2004 Donations Associations Whitestone Artist Collective Inc, Oamaru NZ Education Master of Science in Zoology,
I have placed all of these pages onto this one page if you would prefer to see it as a whole...
¶ To gain a greater classical technical knowledge I traveled to England where I learned to carve Portland Limestone with traditional tools and techniques. I tutored under Neville Walbridge, a master mason, learning ‘forgotten’ skills and using outdated tools. To me, traditional techniques are invaluable. These techniques need to be salvaged and recorded before they are lost. It is part of my experience as an artist to learn and document as many variable techniques as possible over my lifetime. As I concentrate solely upon limestone, I have developed skills and acquired tools specifically for limestones.
¶ While partly I carve limestone because it is a traditional stone, I also work it because it is the only stone that is healthy to breath. High levels of calcium carbonate in limestone mean that not only is the material safe to breath without a respirator or mask, it is actually beneficial as it strengthens the bones and muscles: an added advantage when working under stressful conditions. It is this cyclic relationship that draws me continually back to limestone. There are a large variety of carving limestones throughout the world, and I plan to carve as many different ones as possible through my lifetime, for this reason I have adopted the subtitle of Itinerant Stone Sculptor.
¶ The images I then create in limestone also hark back to traditional work. Most of my images concern creatures with wings, whether they be birds or mythical beasts. Primarily the concept of flight – freedom and escape – is what draws me to these subjects, but also the symbolism of flight as associated with communication, message bearing and prophecy. Birds are also connected with wisdom and the soul, and alternatively conveying the soul. My main artistic influences are Gothic Architecture, Egyptian Art (esp. Dynasty XXVI), Oceanic Art, Northwest Coastal Pacific and First Nations Art, Shona Sculpture, Primitivism, Dutch New Realism and Early European Photography. These cultures are all reflected in my work in such a way that people often see their local culture within my pieces; such that in the same artwork Europeans will see the influence of gothic architecture, while Americans will see the Northwest Coastal Pacific Art side.
¶ Besides solitary pieces, I also enjoy creating stories through multiple sculptures. The latest of these was a quartet of stone carvings that concern making your own decisions and not necessarily heeding the expectations of society. This was explored through a phoenix named Petra and the assumption that she had to give up her life for her offspring (as there can be only one phoenix). The series began with the newly formed phoenix on her nest and ended with ‘Petra Changes History,’ which is carved in the round (a broken egg in a nest) below a relief (Petra and Raven, her partner, flying away).
¶ As a trained biologist my sculptures are created to be physically possible, thus adding an enlivening quality. If they were to come alive, my beasts would be mobile, thus making them both more lifelike in their static state and more realistic in their mythical state. My sculptures are at all times created to be touched, often intensely detailed and textured.
www.jvdr.com
Ashburton Art Gallery, Ashburton NZ, Dec 2003 - Jan 2004
Forrester Gallery, Oamaru NZ, Sep - Oct 2003
Travelings,
Power of Protest, Temple Gallery, Dunedin NZ, Nov - Dec 2003
Affordable Art Fair, Cleveland Living Arts Center, Dunedin NZ, Dec 2003
Vessel & Sculpture Exhibition, Nathan Homestead, Manakau NZ, Nov 2003
Cleveland Art Awards, Cleveland Living Arts Center, Dunedin NZ, Sep 2003
Auction Preview,
Push Pin Exhibition, Fotocircle Gallery,
Shaped in Stone,
Bumbershoot Festival,
Advanced Student Exhibition, Center on Contemporary Art,
Summer Exhibition,
Art on the Pier, Port Townsend
Summer Exhibition,
International Student Art Exchange (UK/Japan),
Grainstore Gallery, Oamaru NZ, Dec 2002 - Present
Paul Allen Foundation, Seattle
New Zealand: Alexandra, Christchurch, Nelson, Oamaru, Picton
United Kingdom: Devon, Guildford, Hampshire
United States of America: Ann Arbor, New York City, Seattle
Wild Thyme Festival, Alexandra NZ, 2003
Port Marlborough Sculpture Symposium, Picton NZ, 2003, 2004
Minerals to Arts, Mt Somers NZ, 2002
Live Stone Art, Oamaru NZ, 2002, 2004
Scoltand Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden
Haystack Mountain
University of
Love Seat Special for Symposium, North Otago High Country Hearld NZ, 18 Feb 2004
Building Delights on Film, Ashburton Guardian NZ, 18 Dec 2003
New Outlook for Phoenix Sculpture, Oamaru Mail NZ, 20 Nov 2003
Community Gallery Showcasing Local Artists, Oamaru Mail NZ, 1 Oct 2003
Sculptor From US Excited About Oamaru Stone Event, Otago Daily Times NZ, 25 Jan 2002
The History of Oamaru Stone, Country Calendar, TV-One NZ,
Little Red and
Whitestone Artist Collective Inc, Oamaru NZ, 2003
Action:
Bachelor of Science in Biology (Minor in Geology),
So Greece... yes lots of buildings are painted white and there is a huge number of churches - many of them are private. The houses all have flat tops and the countryside is brown. Luckily the island I was on, Tinos which is the second large one out from Athens, has pretty flat edges, although the center is steep and is crowned by the remains of a volcanic core which has the ruins of a venetian fortress at the top. I was staying in the harbor town generally refered to as Chora which I believe means downtown. I had a little apartment with the kitchen windows overlooking the harbor so I watched all the ferries come and go. And learned the greek alphabet off of the side of the ferries as they had their names in greek and english. There a tons of ferries on Sat and Sun when people come to the island to go up the church. It has had a lot of miricles and people make pilgrimages to it. People will come off the ferry on their hands and feet and crawl up to the church. There is even a carpet up the side of the main road for people to crawl up. A little scary to say the least. Aparrently right now it is especially popular as a blind woman regained her sight there two years ago - the power of the human mind - huh?
There are things however, that I hope nevert to forget about Tinos, some of these are: the venetian fortress and its resident jackdaws and climbing it with Sigred; the extreme levels of salt through everything; the hand cut and punched marble paved alleyways; the local dogs that follow you around and keep you company while you eat dinner; the eggplant and feta dish they can make; the string of prayer beads that each man has and constantly plays with; my landladys thirteen pet cats and their varoius states of health, plus her lunitic dog who tried everything to get hold of me; the gorgeous blacksmith in an old marble studio which smelled of metal and had the most stunning flat beams with a slate roof laid on top; and lastly, weirdest of all, the pet pelican at the fish market (apparently their third).
So, on to the carving... My teacher was Petros Dellatolas - bys thes ways everythings ends ins s ins greeces. He was raised in quarries helping out his father and cousins and is a true master of his material. So the first three days I spent practicing on a large slab with a fault through the middle - so I had to keep aware of that. Marble, unlike good limestone, requires you to be aware of the bedding layers at all times. The softest surface is the actual layer itself and it is quickest to work down these layers. You start the furthest distance away from yourself and work back towards youself - thereby showing the marble down to which layer you want it to pop off. The other two sides of the marble are the murello and head. The hardest and most possible to mess up is the head. In fact in the two weeks I never worked the head without an electric tool. When working the sides you have to be aware at all times to not let the layers pop apart. Which is what it seems to spend most of its time wanting to do. Therefore with the point you work across the grain (if you went with it you might lock the point between the layers) and with a claw (a toothed chisel) and chisels you work with the grain for the eactly same reason. It is often easier to think of the above as if you are scaping along a loaf of sliced bread which you want to keep as a loaf. The really surprising thing for me was how much harder it became to cut across the murello compared to working the faces (the bedding layers themselves). There is a dramatic change in the ease of work. So after making two flat surfaces on the slab which almost met at a neat staight line - Petros told me I was hired. One of the best compliments I have ever received.
So then it was on to the sculpture itself. And even this was different Petros asked me to make a macquette, which I rarely ever do, but I did. I still hate clay by the way. The model was on an idea that I have been developing in NZ of a a bird and woman together as one. In the kiwi idea it was woman on one side an a bird on the other - so that it was like a woman wearing a cape with mask of a bird. In the case of the one on Tinos it was a woman with a birds head wearing a cape. Then we selected a rock which was a triangle shape. The rock then had to be oriented to the piece in that the bits that stuck out have to have the bedding lazers running through them at the correct angle. this meant that the sides of the sculture were the faces (the easy bit) and the front, back, top and bottom were the hard bits with the top and bottom as the head (the hardest bit). At first I did not work on the sculpture itself at all, but rather using planes off of the model took away all the excess rock. This was equivilant to finding the volumetric shape of the sculpture and translating that to the rock. Thereby after a day and a halfs work I was left with a pyramid form which contained the sculpture with little extra space. This was a much quicker way to work than I normally do, as I am always scared that I might take off rock that I wanted, rather, this way allowed me to just blast way at the rock and as long as I didnt divot into the plane I knew the whole sculpture was still inside. After that it was a matter of refining the planes to a smaller size. It was surprisingly quick for just using steel tools, it was also surprising how the toughness of the murello easied up as soon as you were going at any kind of angle to it other than 90 degrees.
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