Long Strides in Tiny Shoes
2005 Amsterdam / Bern
What is it to have the opportunity to respond to a moment that has already past? This is the terrain of dreams or longings – to look back over our shoulders and see that the past exists within the present and that it is still malleable and responsive to our actions.
This was the opportunity offered to a decade of graduates of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Long Strides in Tiny Shoes presented works from the Rietveld’s archive coupled with current pieces from each artist. The pieces in Long Strides in Tiny Shoes represented points of resolution: an idea captured in a particular way, at a given time by artists who shared a period of training at an international center of art and design education. As a collection of resolutions, Long Strides in Tiny Shoes sought to catch the reflected light of a present academy and its past influences. But resolutions are part harmony and part dissonance - this exhibition did not present unity. Rather, it offered a refraction of the source, a separate course charted by each of its constituents. It is work that reflected on itself while contributing to the legacy from which it comes.
Long Strides In Tiny Shoes was shown at Huis Rechts Art Space in Amsterdam in May 2005 and traveled to Bern, Switzerland in November 2005. The exhibition was the final project of my Fulbright Fellowship.
Participating artists: Tomomi Arata, Ulrike Bartels, Alexandra Baum, Ela Bauer, Monique van Bruggen, Thomas Dierks, Cathelijne Engelkes, Jantje Fleischhut, Afke Golsteijn, Ankie de Groot, Filippine de Haan, Oliver Haardt, Hanneke van Hage, Gésine Hackenberg, Ineke Heerkens, Leonor Hipólito, Jeannette Jansen, Machteld van Joolingen, Manon van Kouswijk, Erik Kuiper, Felieke van der Leest, Malin Lindmark, Suska Mackert, Amandine Meunier, Rozemarijn van der Molen, Laura de Monchy, Iris Nieuwenburg, Evert Nijland, Claudia Oliveira, Ilona Plaum, Katja Prins, Anna Rikkinen, Constanze Schreiber, Nelli Tanner, Maike Thonissen, Terhi Tolvanen, Karin Seufert, Andrea Wagner, Anette Walz, Francis Willemstijn, Mina Wu, Andreas Zidek