Los AngelesU.S.A.
ADAPTATION CROSSING BORDERS August 12 – September 24, 2023 September 16 - October 7, 2023
exhibition in DURDENANDRAY
exhibition in ruimteCAESUUR DURDENANDRAY Adaptation – statement Art works Exhibition
page 03 page 04 Page 05 page 20
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ruimteCAESUUR Crossing Borders – statement Art works Exhibition
Colophon Page 59
Artistic exchange between artists of Durden and RayUSA and ruimteCAESUURNL. Resulting in two exhibitions, ADAPTATION in ruimteCAESUUR Middelburg, and CROSSING BORDERS in the DurdenandRay Gallery in Los Angeles. With Arezoo Bharthania, Valerie Wilcox, Ben Jackel, Giel Louws, Hans Overvliet and Jorieke Rottier Thanks to Carlos Beltran Arechiga for making the first contact at Supermarket in Stockholm and the inspirational follow up to link the six artists involved to each other.
Founded in 2009, Durden and Ray is comprised of artist/curators who work together to create exhibition opportunities at their downtown Los Angeles gallery as well as in concert with artist groups and gallery spaces around the world. Durden and Ray concentrates on small, tightly curated group shows at the gallery, organized by the members, and hosts international artists as part of a commitment to global exchange and alternative networks. The Durden and Ray model expressly overlaps multiple strategies, including the commercial potential and visual identity of a gallery, the democratic structure of an artist group, the potential to create collaborative works of art in the manner of a collective, and the shared fiscal support of its programs by group members and project partners similar to a nonprofit organization. Durden and Ray is committed both to individual praxis and to shared aims of curatorial experimentation, visual research, and artistic exchange with international partners. P. 3
Adaptation | Adapting to physical and psychological barriers or obstacles How we adapt to obstacles or challenges in our lives, be that our physical or psychological situation will be explored through different techniques and media in this exhibition, Adaptation. This exhibition features three American artists and three Dutch artists showing work together that delves into the concept of adaptation and how we adjust to a new circumstance or condition. Be it the rapidly changing environment, global migration, a continent coming to terms with a new war or dealing with our own psychological adjustments to personal or art related challenges, the diverse perspectives of these artists coalesce into a visual expression of our current time and place. From September 16 till October 8 the same artists will present their works in Los Angeles.
Artists from Durden and Ray Valerie Wilcox, Arezoo Bharthania, Ben Jackel Artists from ruimteCAESUUR Jorieke Rottier, Giel Louws, Hans Overvliet P. 4
art works P. 5
Arezoo Bharthania Remnants
Arezoo Bharthania The Yelloow Knob
Valerie Wilcox A Momentary Happening
Ben Jackel Fortress Wesel
Jorieke Rottier to make smooth or glossy by friciton or coating to decorate to see to one’s appearance
Jorieke Rottier to gnaw away to consume/ to become worn away
Giel Louws Gravity
Hans Overvliet other than joyful peace, no news from the Western Front
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statements
Since 1995, exhibitions of contemporary art have been made in CAESUUR, from 1999 on at Lange Noordstraat 67 in Middelburg. Visual arts, in relation with contemporary art discourse, are always the guiding principle for an exhibition, but a historical and social perspective also determine our choices. ruimte(space)CAESUUR stands for the autonomy of art and puts the artist’s oeuvre at the center of organizing its (solo) exhibitions. Young, novice and “arrived” artists are offered a platform to present their work in a noncommercial environment. Meeting and learning from each other play an important role within the annual planning of ruimteCAESUUR. We form a private initiative, without any profit motive, with Willy van Houtum and visual artist Hans Overvliet as its core; they form the board of the CAESUUR foundation. teamCAESUUR is more than completed by the visual artists Jorieke Rottier and Giel Louws. The unique composition of our team crosses borders of art practices, gender, and generations. P. 37
Crossing Borders: One-on-one collaborations between artists about time and place. One half of the gallery will be dedicated to Crossing Borders, a collaboration with ruimteCAESUUR in The Netherlands. As part of the Durden and Ray exchange program, Crossing Borders was conceived as a collaborative project between six artists; three from the collective ruimteCAESUUR in the Netherlands and three from Durden and Ray in Los Angeles. Each artist from the Netherlands chose a Durden and Ray artist to collaborate with directly, communicating back and forth over time. Each team of two artists came up with a unique concept for their collaboration and used diverse mediums including; sculpture, painting, photography, and installation. Artist pairings are Hans Overvliet and Ben Jackel, Jorieke Rottier and Arezoo Bharthania as well as Giel Louws and Valerie Wilcox. The central concept being a melding of ideas and objectives over time and place, intermingling their respective experiences. This causes a blurring of boundaries which leads us to question: Is it possible to bring an authentic experience of one place with you to another place, effectively crossing borders? P. 38
To give an example of peer collaboration Hans Overvliet wrote: The collaboration with Ben resulted in the creation of the final version of DISTANT SUFFERING XX | i.d. of a shared cup of tea. The simulacrum that the work also wants to be is now complete: a layer of sand from Yemen, where Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud [14] died, a layer from Zeeland, where the work was conceived and a layer sourced through Ben from Venice Beach, America, where the bomb was manufactured that killed Raja. The inner rhyme with Ben's work "School Bus" seems obvious to me in both image and materials, given the question posed by John Maxwell Coutzee: ‘Innocence. Isn’t that a much more interesting idea than beauty and comfort?’ The second work DISTANT SUFFERING XXXI | other than joyful peace, no news from the Western Front refers to the safe sky through which our two countries are united: no drones or cruise missiles come down from it; only a little water in various manifestations and occasional some sunlight.
art works P. 39
Hans Overvliet DISTANT SUFFERING XX | third state i.d. of a shared cup of tea
Hans Overvliet DISTANT SUFFERING XXXI other than joyful peace, no news from the Western Front
Ben Jackel Schoolbus Sandbox
Giel Louws Time and Place
Jorieke Rottier studio annotations
Arezoo Bharthania
exhibition 53
Giel Louws and Valerie Wilcox
Jorieke Rottier and Arezoo Bharthania
Ben Jackel and Hans Overliet
colophon 59
Crossing Borders September 16 - October 7, 2023
Adaptation August 12 – September 24, 2023
Gallery Durden and Ray in the Bendix Building: 1206 Maple Avenue #832 Los Angeles, CA 90015
ruimteCAESUUR Lange Noordstraat 67 NL-4331 CC Middelburg The Netherlands
DandRart@gmail.com
caesuur@zeelandnet.nl
Arezoo Bharthania, Ben Jackel, Valerie Wilcox Thanks to Carlos Beltran Arechiga
Run by Willy van Houtum, Jorieke Rottier, Giel Louws & Hans Overvliet Support in 2023 | the town of Middelburg the happy shareholders & friends of CAESUUR
CROSSING BORDERS September 16 - October 7, 2023
ADAPTATION August 12 – September 24, 2023
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Los AngelesU.S.A.