November 4, 2010
When I passed the zoo in Amsterdam yesterday, I spotted these metal statues on a grassy plot near the Nijlpaarden bicycle bridge. There are a T-rex, a centaur, a woman carrying a basket on her head, a monkey and others. I don’t think this is an official display, considering the unkept area it was in, but the people of the neighbourhood seemed to enjoy the little ad hoc park.
I haven’t been able to find out who made them, so any hints are appreciated.
November 2, 2010
Two Dutch women artists decided to test the limits of what HEMA (major chain store) would accept to reproduce on a cake from a photo in the cities of Enschede and Deventer. They ordered seven cakes, of which three were rejected.
An authentic old picture of a Hitler greeting wasn’t a problem and neither were tompouces with ‘Islamic culture is backwards’ on them, a well-known phrase uttered by murdered politician Pim Fortuyn a few years back.
What didn’t make the cut was a man with an erection and a woman with her legs open and a heart hiding anything indecent. So erotic is out (the store claimed that was porn), but ‘fascist’ politics are in. Now you know too. Let’s be fair, both cities are far from the country’s capital and have different values and political views. That’s my polite way of saying people there are more shocked by sex and clearly vote more to the right as of late.
The General Terms and Conditions of HEMA say that the pictures, “cannot go against the law, must show good morals and cannot have any religious content”. Obviously the people who made these cakes at HEMA never read any of that or don’t understand what it meant.
(Links: welingelichtekringen, ad)
October 3, 2010
Rotterdammers spotted this foam lady at a local roundabout last week.
Two days later and she had lost her head, a leg and an arm. The statue was made by Hans Kleinjan.
(Photo by Trendbeheer/Niels Post, some rights reserved)
Tags: Rotterdam, roundabouts
September 26, 2010
Every roundabout needs its artwork, and here is Yasser Ballemans’ proof.
The photo shows workers putting in the centre piece of the roundabout near Hoogeveen airport.
I especially like the spiky bits that mirror the obligatory ‘shark’s teeth’ painted on the street (to indicate you must yield) and that just make the one in ten million chance that you crash through the front window of your car and impale yourself that much more interesting.
Check out Yasser’s website, he’s done a lot of interesting things lately.
(Link: Trendbeheer. Photo: Yasser Ballemans.)
Tags: roundabouts
September 25, 2010
As part of the Noord Holland biennial you can spend an hour or more on a life raft on the IJsselmeer (PDF) near Hoorn. Cell phones are not allowed, but there is apparently a way to signal the organisers that you wish to get off prematurely.
The event was set up by artists Marjolijn Dijkman and José Carlos Martinat, who hope you reach enlightenment in that short time. If you wish to reach enlightenment in a rescue vessel equipped with a Martini bar, sheep skin rugs and a DVD player, you should contact a different artist.
September 19, 2010
No, the headline is not about environmental technology but about paint. We wrote earlier about the hotel in Zaandam that is made to look like it’s constructed of dozens of the green wooden houses that are typical for the area. It turns out that this was just part of a plan to give a much larger part of the inner city that look, including city hall.
Trendbeheer has more photos of the work in progress.
Alderman Hans Luiten told De Volkskrant in March: “There have been times where I wondered if I could deal with this much identity.” The new city centre is a response to the neglect of the old one. Luiten: “In the past you would not have wanted to be found dead there.”
The man behind the reshaping of the centre of Zaandam into a green Disneyland/nightmare/whatever is architect Sjoerd Soeters who was also responsible for Java Island in Amsterdam. “All his works have been discussed vehemently among architects, but are also appreciated much by their users”, Volkskrant adds. It appears that behind Soeters’ façades lurks a strong vision of livable streets. Which may be why the main street on the aforementioned Java Island is a foot and bike path.
(Photo of the new city hall in Zaandam by Wikimedia user Arch who released it in the public domain)
Tags: green, livable streets, wood, Zaandam
September 9, 2010
Back in June 2008 we told you about earthlings of the Dutch persuasion planning to perform Klingon opera and that day has finally come.
The Klingon opera ‘U’ (that’s the name of it, pronounced ‘oo’) will premiere tonight at the Zeebelt theater in The Hague and run until 12 September, after which the show is heading to Qetlop in Farnsberg, Germany to perform at an exclusive event for the Klingons of the Khemorex Klinzhai Fleet.
Klingon language expert Marc Okrand, the creator of the language, will be the guest of honour at the 10 September premiere.
Classical trained opera singers will be performing, here’s a presentation of U at a FedCon sci-fi gathering, have a look at the video (1:03):
(Links: presurfer, u-theopera)
August 5, 2010
Besides the very cute cake, there’s also a whole bunch of Piet Mondriaan inspired things.
(Link: pietmondriaan.com, photo: trendbeheer.com)
Tags: Piet Mondriaan
August 2, 2010
The Efteling is one of the oldest theme parks in the world, and generally the happiest place on earth (or at least of the country), but not today.
VPRO’s Dorst made a silly little photo strip that shows the tired and weary of a theme park. Do check out their other stuff (previous and next are vorige and volgende in Dutch) but take care, because some of it is NSFW.
July 20, 2010
Tonight, on a Dutch television show that usually calls upon people to find missing children or criminals, we will be called upon for a stolen portrait of Arda Boogers (see painting here), painted by world-famous artist, Piet Mondriaan. It was stolen in mid June from the Freriks Museum in Winterswijk. Since we like numbers, it is insured to the tune of 28,000 euro. It is considered to be missing internationally, so keep your eyes open.
(Link: telegraaf.nl)
Tags: Piet Mondriaan, Winterswijk
