When we choose ‘Art’ as our new theme a few months ago, we immediately knew that we also wanted to visit a museum. We set up a little museum task force (Thanks Ruben and Morris!), they did some research and picked out a few museums that looked interesting. In the end, we landed on Kunsthal KAdE in the beautiful city of Amersfoort. In this article, everyone that was present on the trip chose one of their favorite artworks and wrote something about it. These beautiful/interesting/eccentric evaluations can be read below. 

Marjolein 

When I walk through a museum, I look for interesting compositions. Not just within the painting but also in the way the art is displayed. Therefore I have chosen this particular artwork, Dazzled Perpetuation. The artwork was made by Hadassah Emmerich: a woman. Which is always a plus in this (art) world that is still largely dominated by men. This woman creates art inspired by female identity, sensuality, exotism, and self-reflection. This was also one of the only artworks in her 'corner' that did not explicitly have a picture of intimate female body parts. That is, however, not why I chose it. I chose this artwork because it is not just a picture in a frame. The vibrant colors continued all along the wall. This photo does not even slightly show what it looked like in reality. The artwork was located at the top of some stairs and looking down, you just looked into a tunnel of dynamic colors. It just felt like a really nice place to walk around. The dark, colorful area also formed a beautiful contrast with the white walls and daylight that could be seen throughout the rest of the exposition. This was truly the highlight of the museum for me. 

Rens 

This artwork, called More Mree – Ocular Drift, was situated inside one of the walls of a square white room of about 12 square meters. A bench was placed in the room, so visitors could calmly observe the moving patterns. When I first arrived at the room, it was occupied by a woman who said to me: “if you want to feel nauseous, then come sit here for a while.” So that’s what I did. 

That woman exaggerated a bit, but the moving patterns did have a hypnotizing effect. At first, I thought it was a screen, but it made a weird buzzing sound, so I looked at it up close and saw two layers of finely woven textiles slowly moving on top of each other. The textile panels were lit from behind, which created the so-called Moiré effect. 

One of the museum employees told me that the artist, Philip Vermeulen, tries to explore the boundaries of human perception in his work and uses technology to achieve that. As an HTI student, this sounded incredibly appealing, so I looked up some more of his works. I came across a similar artwork called More Moiré2, which is way bigger and thereby creates “a panoramic Ganzfeld, with no horizon or anchor, causing visitors to lose their sense of depth and experience intense disorientation as they undergo perceptual deprivation.” In other words, it’s the artwork from the picture on steroids. If you’re interested, you can take a look here: https://www.philipvermeulen.com/more-moire-2. But beware, this one might actually make you feel nauseous! 

Babette 

This artwork called Paraná de las Palmas (2021) was for me personally the most interesting artwork of the museum. Especially when I saw a sign that indicated that you could walk on the carpet in your socks. Therefore, you could not only watch the artwork, but you could feel it, or even lie on it and roll around. Of course, every member of the Intermania did so, which resulted in taking a beautiful picture with all of us included, as you can see above. I personally really like it when an artwork is interactive since it lets the visitors of the museum participate more actively, instead of when one is only watching a piece of art. In this way, better attention is given to the art piece, and it keeps visitors more interested in the meaning behind it. 

The artwork is made by the artist named Alexandra Kehayoglou, who portrays landscapes that are endangered by humans. However, in her artworks, these landscapes are still in their pure, untouched form. In this way, she wants people to be more aware of the impacts of humans on ecosystems. Alexandra has fabricated multiple other carpets of several landscapes, that people can walk on or touch. These pieces can be found on her website. Alexandra Kehayoglou   

Lotte  

The artwork which spoke to me the most is a painting called “If I don't see you again” by Friedrich Kunath. It is a rather dark painting which is (in my very SI opinion) one of the ways that the earth can end up if nothing changes. Especially with the news that came out a few weeks ago where most of the IPCC researchers were rather pessimistic about the achievement of the climate goals set in Paris. For me, this dark orange doom scenario is what some parts of the world will look like due to global warming. Then the oasis on the left will slowly disappear, due to global warming. In this oasis also the tile of the painting is stated, if I don't see you again, as a sort of farewell to the current world and its beauty. This shows the worry I have for the environment and its future, but it also shows the fact that the world is beautiful and worth saving, which is not easy. But let’s try together! 

Morris  

When we came walking into this room, I was immediately blown away by this art piece. The whole installation filled the room with an unworldly landscape of plant-like structures. To me, the landscape felt like an underwater scene with jellyfish and sea urchins found in the deepest trenches of our oceans that was for the first time exposed to the light. When you listened closely you could hear strange sounds coming from the various plants from which I could not immediately identify what they were, which added to the mystery of the whole scene. I stood there, watching the whole installation for a while when suddenly I saw one of the sea urchins moving. First, I thought I was beginning to hallucinate (which was not a strange thought because I was a bit stoned) but looking closely I indeed saw the strange spikey balls slowly moving through the room. This art piece was alive! 

For me, it was amazing to see how this artist could incorporate different materials, light, sound, and movement all in one artwork to create a creepy but beautiful landscape. 

Wouter 

LOLA Landscape Architects art piece 

To be honest, I am not particularly an artsy person. But, I was positively surprised by this exhibition. The general theme is what makes this exhibition interesting to me. This theme is best visualized by my favorite art piece which is also displayed as the promotion picture for this exhibition. It is a forest coming forth from under a layer of bricks. For me, this has a great meaning which should be brought to the attention more. Under all our human buildings there is or rather was a beautiful, free nature. (And no I am not an SI student). This art piece also reminds me of the power of nature. Have a look at abandoned places like Chernobyl. These are just fully taken over by nature again! It is just amazing how fast nature can reclaim human "owned" locations if they are left unattended. 

Has this article sparked some interest in this exhibition? Schurend Paradijs can still be visited until the 14th of august at Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort. If you do happen to go, make sure you don't forget to visit the Elleboogkerk. This is part of the exhibition and you really do not want to miss this.