dinsdag 13 januari 2015

Video Art

Johannes Vermeer
View on Delft 
1660-1661
Oil on Canvas
96.5 x 117.5 cm
Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis

Rosa Paardenkooper
View on Den Bosch
Video
Den Bosch

As a response to Vermeer's view on Delft, which portrays the Dutch city Delft, I created a video which shows a view on Den Bosch, the city where I am originally from. 

maandag 12 januari 2015

Self-Portrait

Self-portrait
2014
Photograph
282mm x 292mm
Istanbul

The assignment was to create a portrait, when I thought about this I realized how portraits are mostly not very interesting since they simply represent a person through displaying their face, or their whole body. Another observation I made was the fact that they usually represent the person in an iconic fashion, for example by indicating their profession, their nicest clothes etc. With this notion of iconic I started brainstorming and decided to create a portrait which just shows a lock of my hair. Ever since I was old enough to remember people have commented on my hair, both in the Netherlands and abroad, thus I decided that to represent my hair would for many people be enough to understand that this was me, and would thus serve as a portrait in that it is recognizable and iconic. 

Interpretation of Michelangelo's Pieta


Michelangelo Buonarroti
1498-1499
Marble
1.74m x 1.95m
Saint-Peters basilica


Rosa Paardenkooper - Nous sommes Charlie
2014
Photo Layers
1500x1500
Istanbul


As a response to the recent events in Paris, I decided to comment on the situation in my pieta adaptation. In order not to take away from its message and function I used a very subtle change by adding text. My goal is to demonstrate how the attack on the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine, should not be defined by the hatred of one religion, Islam, towards this magazine, but should rather be defined by the hatred of these particular men who committed these acts. The death of Ahmed, a Muslim police officer who was killed whilst protecting the magazine, has become a symbol of the way in which these events should not be subscribed to a religion but rather to individuals. By making both Jesus and Maria, two Christian icons, stating that they are equally Ahmed I aim to comment on any questioning of these actions in relation to religion, demonstrating that generally speaking people are all Ahmed.

This article reflects on the position of #jesuisahmed and #jesuischarlie in the light of recent events http://www.vox.com/2015/1/9/7521151/charlie-hebdo-jesuisahmed

zondag 21 december 2014

University Database Concept






Process and explanation: The question was to create a concept in which we could use the university database of pictures to create an art work. Despite the fact that I have access to such a database I find it unethical to make use of these pictures, thus I decided to refrain from creating a work but instead merely write down a concept. I attend a small college, approximately 900 students, this brings with it a promise of a more individualized educations, class size is limited to 22 students, teachers know each of these students on a more personal level and administrative staff is more approachable. At least, this is the utopian view of the system. However, during my time here at Bogazici I have experienced more and more that this is not necessarily always true, and that, although Bogazici is a much bigger institute, I feel closer to some of my teachers here, and more helped by the system, than back home. If I was to create an art work with these pictures I would thus try to comment on this lack of individual attention, an example could be by erasing the names of the students in the directory and instead placing their student numbers, or any random number to identify them. I have above placed an example of how this would change the directory by using my own picture.


Additionally I also thought about changing all the pictures into curriculum vitae’s and grade lists, since this seems to be of bigger importance to many students, at least in my school, then the actual process of knowledge acquisition and development as a person. There often seems to be a large emphasis on doing something just so that it will look good on your resume, rather than because you are very passionate about it. So instead of showing yourself, and showing who you are in daily life, you show a paper version of yourself on which you list everything you have accomplished. 

zaterdag 20 december 2014

Street Art Concept




Process:
For this picture I placed a printscreen of my Facebook page in a fictional billboard that could be placed next to the highway. 

If I would want to carry this out in reality I would have to create a poster that would fit the billboard and paste it onto an actual one. Since I do not have my residence permit yet and the Turkish police scares me, I did not do this. 

Explanation:

Many people have been worrying over the recent changes in Facebook and Whatsapp in terms of privacy issues. They argue that on January 1st 2015 our current level of privacy will be severely compromised by these media. I agree with them on the fact that our privacy will be compromised, I, however, disagree with the fact that this will happen from January first onward. I argue that media such as Facebook and Whatsapp have always placed a risk to our privacy, and we should accept the fact that this is the case, although it may be a warped logic in the sense that they should have never used our personal information to begin with, I would say that we should take responsibility for our own actions online, and thus only place images and text that we are not ashamed of. In order to demonstrate this argument, I would place my Facebook page on billboards and project it on buildings, to show that I have nothing to hide, and that I take this responsibility. 


vrijdag 19 december 2014

Interpretation Michelangelo's Creation of Adam

Michelangelo Buonarroti - Creation of Adam
1511
Fresco
4.8m x 2.3m
Sistine Chapel



Rosa Paardenkooper - Digitalized
2014
Photo Layers
3008 x 2000
Istanbul

Process:

I added an Iphone to the picture which I placed in Adams hand.

Explanation:

Through this very subtle adjustment I aim to criticize the ways in which we let our lives be mediated by electronic devices. When we step out into any touristic area we can observe an increasing number of people who hardly seem to look at their environment, apart from through their phone, tablet or camera screen. I think that this is compromising the experience in many ways, since people no longer seem to be taking the time for contemplation but rather only aim to document their lives in order to show this footage to others. At first I wanted to make the Iphone bigger and more present, by tilting it slightly to the viewer and showing the picture Adam is making (either of himself or of God), but I decided to keep it to this subtle adjustment, since this development seemed to have taken over our lives in a similarly quiet fashion, making it almost inevitable for people to take on this attitude for themselves. In addition to that I also wanted to criticize the inattentiveness of people to the art works, which is almost inherent to the electronic mediation, by making the change so small that many would perhaps not even notice, were it actually to be there in the Sistine Chapel. 





Interpretation of Joseph Beuys' Felt Suit


Joseph Beuys - Felt Suit
1970
Stitched Felt
170cm x 100cm
Private Collection



Rosa Paardenkooper - Handyman
2014
Interpretation of Joseph Beuys' Felt Suit
Mixed Media
2400x1800
Istanbul


Process:

I first assembled the three pictures of the hands, I found the right and left one online, and the middle one is my own hand print. After that I edited the hands into the picture of the art work by Beuys with the help of an online photo editor.

Explanation:

I wanted to demonstrate how a small adaptation to an art work, but also to anything else, can change our perception, through juxtaposing three identical suits with a different hand. Each of the hands create a surrealist effect due to the fact that they are not fully attached to the suit, and the suit is clearly not worn by anyone. However, this effect is more expected from the middle piece, since this does not contain a real hand, then from the other two, since they could, realistically speaking, be coming out of a suit, as they are human hands. Each of the hands also show a different gesture, the first being open and reaching out, the second being completely spread, either because of tension or as a wave, the last one trying to grab something or trying to put his fingers around an unknown object. Through these different gestures I wanted to show that we can interpret someone through something as small as the way in which they position their hands, the first and second could be more welcoming, the third could be more closed.