Ik werk als schrijver, kunstenaar en boekverkoper in Amsterdam.
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I work as a writer, artist and bookseller based in Amsterdam.
het balanseer is een kleine, experimentele uitgeverij in Gent en publiceren literatuur en poëzie van o.a. C. C. Krijgelmans, marwin vos, Dominique de Groen, Arno van Vlierberghe, Obe Alkema, Pelumi Adejumo, Koen Sels, Çağlar Köseoğlu en Sis Matthé.
For #2 in the ¶ (Pilcrow)-series I have approached collecting, or hoarding, as an aesthetic of patience. Through my selection of Wikipedia articles I have looked at what happens when objects, magical or otherwise, are all put together. If it is impossible, and perhaps even uninteresting, to know when a collection or archive is finished, how does one start to hoard impatiently?
¶#2 consists solely of texts and images found on the online collaborative platform Wikipedia. ¶#2 is designed by Tjobo Kho and Wouter Stroet, edited by Jan-Pieter ‘t Hart and published by OUTLINE. ¶#2 is printed in an edition of 150 and published in May 2021.
Romance Utopia is a research project that has gotten out of hand; spilled over into a digital archive, a radioshow, a videowork and a collection of essays.
SNAKY ZINE is a self-published political zine on socialist feminism, racism, ableism, sexuality, spirituality and community building. I run this publication together with Joy Brandsma.
For sale at Stedelijk Amsterdam, San Serriffe, Het Fort van Sjakoo, Circe’s Circus Nimboscope and via our channels.
Voor Pas Uit, een nieuw online platform dat onderbelicht literair werk uit alle windhoeken onder de aandacht brengt, schreef ik een signalement over het boek ‘Mothercare’ van Lynne Tillman.
Het stuk is via deze link te lezen.
Voor de literatuurspecial van NRC Magazine werd ik geïnterviewd door Nathalie Wouters over mijn interesse in kleding en alles dat glimt en glanst.
Lees het interview via deze link.
In de maanden maart, april en mei van 2023 heb ik me ondergedompeld in de Amsterdamse School. In een audioreflectie, gemaakt in opdracht van Domein voor Kunstkritiek, reageer ik op de vaste tentoonstelling van Museum Het Schip.
Al wandelend bevraag ik de rol van het ornamentele in de woonrevolutie van toen, en hoe dit zich verhoudt tot het woonprotest van nu. Ook stuit ik op allerlei persoonlijke herinneringen aan opgroeien in deze buurt: wie wonen er nog, wie zijn er verhuisd, waar zijn de Arbeiderspaleizen?
Met dank aan Emma van Meyeren voor de coördinatie van dit project, Tjobo Kho voor het ontwerp, Alma Apt voor de techniek en montage en natuurlijk Domein voor Kunstkritiek
Vanaf nu te beluisteren via deze link
Voor DIG schreef ik een essay getiteld ‘Vrienden, vreemden, maagden’, waarin ik de roddelachtige totstandkoming van een herinnering deel.
In eerste instantie geschreven als reactie op een essay in De Nederlandse Boekengids van Nadia de Vries, is dit later uitgemond in een reflectie op, en waardering van, schunnige en smerige literatuur.
Lees het essay hier: https://www.de-gids.nl/artikelen/vrienden-vreemden-maagden
Met dank aan de redactie van Lars Meijer, Frances Welling en Lucie Fortuin.
Op zaterdag 17 december hield ik mijn performance getiteld ‘]bracket’ op een avond rondom het oeuvre van de Canadese schrijver en classica Anne Carson. Ik deelde het podium met Marijke Emeis, Simone Atangana Bekono, Roelof ten Napel, Alfred Schaffer, Mia You en Jip Lemmens.
The exhibition titled ‘Untied Knots’, opening September 9 at Reneenee, features works of artists Eefje Stenfert, Feline Hjermind and Mireille Tap. I wrote the exhibition text and read it at the opening.
As part of the first iteration of Laverie Sentimentale, I wrote and read a text for their performative radio show at the State of Fashion conference in Arnhem.
This event was held in the VéBé van Steijn Laundry in the city of Arnhem on the 1st of July, as part of the International Fashion Conference “Ways of Caring: Practicing Solidarity” organised by State of Fashion.
You can listen back to the show here:
On May 21st, Liza Prins and Veerle Melis hosted ‘Becoming Lamb’: a day of workshops and readings celebrating Anne Boyer’s poem ‘When The Lambs Rise Up Against The Bird Of Prey’.
I read a poem titled ‘BOOK LAMB MOTHER LAMB’: a text that works with the idea of the lamb as a creep.
To celebrate their finished ¶ (Pilcrow)-series, Outline Platform organized an event with readings and performances in OT301 on May 19th 2022.
Alongside performances by Kim David Bots, Annosh Urbanke, Callum Dean and Jan-Pieter ‘t Hart, I read a text originally written for ¶#2 titled ‘Hoarding, collection, memory’.
Syzygy, an artist-run collective, invited me to make a textual contribution to their exhibition ‘State of Cling’ that runs from January 15 till February 13 at Omstand Arnhem.
I contributed a short story on clingy objects and memories of my father’s thumb to their exhibition publication.
More information on the collective via this link.
My short story titled ‘Its creator, my mother’ is published in the first edition of Deleuzine, “a zine for nobodies without organs.”
Romance Utopia displays some of the outcomes of my research project: a search for, and making of, romantic ruins. Its main question is how to ‘save’ romance from being instrumentalized for boring or harmful purposes and instead aims to steer it into a radical direction.
I have carried out this research through writing, collecting and curating imagery and text, setting up a workshop series, doing interviews, and working with audio. It is never quite finished, as looking for romance is always already a failed project, but that is kind of the point.
In the first text, I set out my main methodology and argument. Throughout the rest of the book you will find visual works by artists Dagmar Bosma, Mafalda Costa, Mónica Mays and Becket MWN, in whose work I have located an aesthetic of romantic ruination. The second text is an interview with writer and artist Geraldine Snell, whose book ‘overlove’ (2018) interested me deeply as its protagonist performs a type of obsessive romantic pursuit. In ‘A gesture: I had a dream about you’ I investigate the possibility of dream sharing as a romantic gesture. The fourth text in this book is a writing prompt and essay about love tokens that I have written for Terrarista.TV in Kassel and afterwards altered for Read My World festival’s feminist journal writing workshop series. The aim of the prompt is to leave you with a (written) object that will meander beyond the words and images of this publication.
It is for sale at Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum (Amsterdam), San Serriffe (Amsterdam), KIOSK (Rotterdam), Claire de Rouen (London), Tender Books (London), Good Press (Glasgow), Rile Books* (Brussels), and via their respective webshops.
This publication is designed by Tjobo Kho.
On Sunday October 24 I will celebrate the launch of my book Romance Utopia at San Serriffe.
Between 14:00 – 16:00 a limited amount of people can participate in an adapted version of my love token workshop (rsvp via info@san-serriffe.com). Between 16:00 – 18:00 there will be a walk-in with drinks & books.
The publication is designed by Tjobo Kho and contains two of my essays, an interview with Geraldine Snell, four visual works by Becket MWN, Dagmar Bosma, Monica Mays and Mafalda Costa, and a writing prompt based on my love token workshop.
After the launch the book will be available at San Serriffe, Athenaeum Spui, Claire de Rouen books London, rile*space Brussels, and Good Press Glasgow, as well as (international) shipping (more on this later).
Art critic Jorne Vriens has written a short piece about my ongoing research project ‘Romance Utopia’ in the graduation special 2021 of contemporary art magazine Metropolis M.
As part of the Sandberg Critical Studies end of year presentations at De Appel, I read a new text called “and this to me — desire has alloted”, on incoherency in romantic narrative, Anne Carson’s Sappho translations and negativity.
For Outline Platform I assembled 35+ Wikipedia articles and wrote a short essay called “An aesthetic of (im)patience: hoarding, collection, memory” which has been made into this lovely ¶#2 publication titled “Bundle Theory”
As a result of Amelia Groom’s writing workshop at Sandberg Institute, the Critical Studies department worked on a publication called LIKE, which can be ordered now.
It includes a work of mine titled “A baroque longing” in which I consider one of Emma Crabtree‘s works as a ruin.
Order here or pick one up at San Serriffe.
The ‘Love Spells & Rituals For Another World’ publication came out of of a symposium that took place in May 2020 under the same title. All proceeds are split between African Rainbow Family, akt and Mermaids UK.
Edited by Lilly Markaki and Caroline Harris
Designed by Toni Brell
With contributions by:
Denise Ackerl, Marcus Bell, Toni Brell, Keti Chukhrov, Genevieve Costello, AC Davidson, Mijke van der Drift, Phoebe Eccles, Aimilia Efthimiou, Antke Engel, Andrea González Garrán, Caroline Harris, Christian Klesse, Si Leong, Lilly Marks, Cynthia Montier, Lisa Moravec, Ophélie Naessens, Nat Raha, Andrea Ray, Charlotte Rohde, Lou Lou Sainsbury, S. Santos, Despoina Tzanou, Alexandra Voutsina, Nadira Clare Wallace, Romy Day Winkel
In this third edition of SNAKY zine we present the utopian uses of MAGICK via a wide variety of contributions. We printed spells for love and kinship, call up grandma’s magic, situate ourselves in rooms of the imagination…
… embrace our continuous shapeshifting, fight for the power of indigenous lands, remember the legacy of Ana Mendieta, present a tarot spread for writers, do some digital dreaming of magical creatures, emphasise that which is sacred, return to the nine herbs charm, learn about the magical heritage of Monte Veritá, remember that grandma’s bag has everything in it to dismantle capitalism, weave our hair into our surroundings, understand modern economics as a storytelling practice, embrace a recaptured spirit, experience spiritual ecstasy, ask ourselves how much belief comes from longing, let the moon play the flute, receive a list of sounds, learn how to use love runes, re-mystify romantic objects and create a queer space through magick.
Contributions by Pykel van Latum, Nora Torodovic, Artemisia Vulgaris, Jasper Westhaus, Zélie van Steirteghem, Hatty Nestor, Cruda Collective, Mayis Rukel, Mira Thompson, Sophie de Seriere, Matthew Wang, Frances Enyedy, Toni Brell, Sarah Saleh, Sophie Rose Wright, Nathalie Golde, Layla Durrani, Ariane Boot, Liza Borovikova, Joy Brandsma, Liza Prins, Noah Voelker, Justin Nuij, Pluto Polanco and yours truly.
For sale at San Serriffe (Amsterdam), KIOSK (Rotterdam) or via our channels.
Within the context of critical attention, what are the possible roots and branches of the word ‘like’? While globally still moving towards new modes of being together while apart, in our writing seminar with Amelia Groom the Sandberg Critical Studies department has examined liking, likenesses, imitation and fandom as methods and reflected upon the notion of ‘reparative reading’ and the possibilities of affective criticality.
To launch the publication that came out of this writing workshop, we hosted an evening of readings and performances in Perdu on February 19th.
I read a text titled ‘A baroque longing’, which is based on a drawing by Emma Crabtree.
In this workshop, I invited participants to join me in making a love token, and to use this object as a starting point for their personal reflections on romance (in all its guises). Through a short reading of the history of this gesture, participants were asked to enter a guided room-walk in search of a romantic object in their everyday surroundings. They then worked with their found material, thought and spoke about ways to imitate their object’s meaning, and finally incorporated it in the making and writing of a love token.
This workshop was hosted on Valentine’s day by Terrarista TV, an artist-run online streaming channel based in Kassel.
‘Once again, inside a romance utopia’ (2020), 9m50
In an attempt to cut the associative chain between romantic expression and intrusion, I asked four friends to tell me about their romantic objects. In the conversations that followed, there was a transformation in each of them somehow; a feeling of detachment while talking about their object. A practice of remaking their objects with clay seemed to carry the potential to revalue their memories and approach its romantic sensibility with heartiness again.
w/ Joy Brandsma, Maan Meelker, Suzanne Cleerdin & Toni Brell. Colour grading by Mateo Vega, sound edit by Harm Coolen, music by Romy Day Winkel
Screenings:
15.10.2020 @ Sandberg Critical Studies department, research colloquium
29.10.2020 @ Het HEM w/ reading, Sandberg Instituut Graduation Show
31.10.2020 @ Het HEM w/ reading, Sandberg Instituut Graduation Show
29.10 – 1.11.2020 @ Het HEM in a video installation, Sandberg Instituut Graduation Show
29.10 – 16.11.2020 @ www.homecinema.video
On Sunday the 27th of September the first edition of DAISYWORLD magazine, a publication run by Zazie Stevens, will be released, albeit softly, at San Serriffe between 13:00 – 17:00. For this issue, I wrote a fictitious love letter called ‘Scarf Body’ as part of my broader research on romance.
Project description taken from the event:
DAISYW✿RLD MAGAZINE is a seasonal art publication on beauty, perception, the sensory, the nonhuman, ecology & erotica with an emphasis on interconnectedness. Reflecting on the passed season – a record of events; the artist’s intimate knowledge based on observation – while softly moving into the next; each issue will launch in-between seasons; appreciating experience, transition and metamorphosis instead of anticipating the next big thing.
Issue #1 contributors Dayna Casey, Erika Ceruzzi, CAConrad, Naomi Credé, Caroline Heredia-Abernethy, Hannah Hoekstra, Lars Holdhus, Ilja Karilampi, Cristina Kolozsvary-Kiss, Daisy Lafarge, Juliette Lizotte, Laura Lynx, Lilly Marks, Vibeke Mascini, Niklaus Mettler, Amira Prescott (Brot Against Shame), Scott Rogers, Alexander Sand, Lara Schoorl, Zazie Stevens, Hansje Struijk, Tom et Arthur, Renée Turner, Jacent Varoym, Nadia de Vries, Charlott Weise, Romy Day Winkel & Celina Yavelow.
The second issue of SNAKY ZINE is out now! For sale at San Serriffe, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Het Fort van Sjakoo and Circe’s Circus Nimboscope or via our channels.
This edition’s theme is ‘movement’. Here we learn about queer lichens, think through disability and shock, compost hot monsters and fish men, get rid of the anxiety of bike-riding, learn about eggs and spirals, work through issues of ancestry and pride, lay bridges between menstrual blood and trees, decide our bodies to be lovers, be trash and love it, are on the path even hours later, send our inner caregiver on a break, work through a secret crush, admit we are garlic girls, write letters to an ex, glorify Omegle, dwell on gender expressions, create new personas and leave, know how wonderful it is to be a body and take lessons from past dates.
Contributions by Jonny Bruce, Eefje de Neeling, Mira Thompson, Nicolai Schmelling, Georgia Rose Weaver, Kiko Seara, Heli St. Luce, Jill van Grinsven, Lily McNeil, T, Toni Brell, Mateo Vega, Pykel van Latum, Justin Nuij, Manon Bachelier and Lucie Fortuin.
Alice Slyngstad has assembled a self-published zine in which my text ‘Omegle, or The Accidental’ is published.
From Thursday May 28th till Saturday May 30th there will be a wonderful online symposium called “Love Spells & Rituals For Another World” featuring artists and scholars working with alternative visions of love, intimacy and desire from black, feminist and queer perspectives.
I will give the introduction to the first part of the symposium, a live broadcast from a fictive radio station by NYC-based artist Andrea Ray, on No Bounds Radio at 11:00 (GMT+2)
For the full schedule of the symposium, please visit their website.
‘I wanted to be with you so I said I dreamed of you’ (2019), 5min11
In this video we see a collaborative exploration of what happens when you tell someone you had a dream about them.
w/ Mariana Jurado Rico, Alice Slyngstad, Frides van de Ven, Jacinta van de Ven and Mira Thompson
Screenings:
18.01.2019 @ Fanfare, book launch “A friend of a friend: Gossip, Rumour and Anecdote”
06.02.2020 @ Sandberg Instituut, Critical Studies department Open Day
Today the first edition of SNAKY ZINE came out. The theme of this issue is ‘healing’, which is addressed through poetry, rants, theory and collages by various contributors.
In this issue we memeify tarot, rant about self-care and guilt, present poetry about ex-lovers, write about intergenerational trauma, about the safe haven of the swimming pool, read poetry about mourning, co-opt ‘the ugly’ as a way to empowerment, set out an astrology 101 lesson, write about multispecies entanglement, fictionalize experiences of health as a moral obligation, read poetry about needles and share stories about abusive family relations.
Contributions by Luna Naumer Mateos, Mira Thompson, Gaia Willemars and Merethe Riggelsen Gjørding.
On its launch in OT301 we’ll enjoy performances by blusher, Ibi, Maja Chiara Faber, Lottie Walker, Dagmar Bosma, Loïc Vandam, Ashleigh Tia Mitchell, Joy Brandsma, Luna Naumer Mateos, Sofie Ejlers Wolthers, Mandy Pixel, Persian Princis, Mira Thompson & Feline Baek Hjermind.
