Group exhibitions Solo exhibitions CJEP and European Fairytales Theatrical performances
From the first times (1999 and 2000) I visited Tampere I’ve been intrigued by the building Milavida (Näsilinna). It wasn’t until 10 years later that I learned more about its history. Whilst looking for new ways to create art (next to my hand screen prints and in stead of painting), coincidentally in 2008 the TextielLab was created at the renewed Audax Textile Museum in my hometown Tilburg (NL). Because I create my images by using a computer, they are very usable to transform into textile by weaving them on a machine. In recent years I did some research on the textile history of Tilburg, but during my research I couldn’t find an interesting angle for my tapestries. When I visited the exhibition ‘Tampere 1918’ in Vapriikki about the Civil War, I learned about the fighting at Näsi Park (Näsinpuisto). After having searched for interesting images, one picture stayed in my mind: a photo from 1918 of the building with some people standing, but most people lying on the ground, shot dead. A horrible piece of history which provided an interesting angle for my work. For two tapestries I used a photo which I made in 2011 from one of the windows of the building. The window and wall look torn, just how something looks after a war. In the glass of the window a reflection of the past is seen: this is a detail of the old photo from 1918. In one of these tapestries the glass of the window looks grey and only shows the image of the past when the light hits it from certain angles. The white and red tapestry, and also the hand screen prints, show the old photo in full. In mediæval times the milles-fleurs (literally ‘thousand flowers’) motif was used for backgrounds in tapestries. In this tapestry the whole image is covered in flowers to honour the people who died and other victims of the war. I have made this particular flower motif from the geometrical flower motif in the fences around the building. In front I have put three figures of the most famous and iconic artpiece of Finland, which I used symbolically for both sides of the Civil War, the Reds and the Whites, carrying the wounded. Because: isn’t everyone victim in a civil war... or in any war? EP May 2012 Group exhibitions
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