Iris Woutera

Coaching trajectory Nieuw & Meer: HF-welding / airtight sculptures

01-10-2020/ 30-12-2020

For three months, Oct-Dec 2020, I was Artist in Residence at Nieuw & Meer in Amsterdam. In 2018 I could do a first Artist in Residence here. Subsequently, I had the opportunity to return to follow a coaching trajectory with air sculpturist Rens Bouma.

Nieuw & Meer
Spread over two years, I lived and worked at Nieuw & Meer for six months. What I found significant about my stay was the direct inspiring contact with nature, the possibility to meet exceptional artists, and to be introduced to disciplines less familiar to me: for instance, the processing of metal.
In 2018 I worked on the presentation of the performance Crackleware an Collective Loom. In 2020, the reason for my stay was to work on the project BLOB.

BLOB– Binary Large Object.
A new sculpture work including a performance, video and photography/ drawings. This work explores the human body dealing with strong emotions like ‘fear’, resulting in our most basic reactions; fleeing, fighting and freezing. I will conduct research on literature and movement techniques. And react on this research by making sculpture works that have a certain weight and tenacity.

Coaching
Ever since I met Rens Bouma (visual artist) in her atelier at Nieuw & Meer in 2018, I wanted to learn from her new techniques, which turned out to be possible in 2020. Bouma developed several ways to capture air with airtight materials and techniques that result in floating, seemingly weightless objects.

During three months, I could follow an intensive coaching trajectory. Bouma could give an introduction to new plastics and materials and how to process these materials through HF-welding (High-Frequency Welding Machine). It was inspiring to start a whole new domain, exploring the working of gravity.

Collaborations
Performers  Anna Riley-Shepard, Mayke van Veldhuizen, Fernanda Gonzales Morales, Rosanna ter Steege
Sound artist  Dianne Verdonk