Performance Art | Music | Creative direction | Ritual
'Tea and Dragons' is a collective of musicians and visual artists that come together with the aim of creating performances that focus on deep listening, rather than performing. The framework of these sessions is built around the ritual of making and drinking tea. Read more ...
Ceramics | Performance Art | Sound
Lieke’s musical work, whether in recorded or live form, often is accompanied by objects and other visual adornments she has created. Whether these are ceramic masks, or paper kites - her music videos and artist photographs are often adorned with and brought to life by self-crafted sculpture objects that are portable, movable even - as though they were created as a set design for life itself.
In 2021, she began creating her first ceramic sculptures in the studio of artist Det Smeets, who guided her in developing her own visual language. A year later, she had the opportunity to participate in a master-apprentice program, made possible by the Fonds voor Cultuurparticipatie. This allowed her to fully immerse herself in the craft of ceramics and her ongoing exploration of the relationship between image and sound.
This year provided her with a deep understanding of the ceramic process. In 2023, she opened her own studio: Atelier Oost, located at Sajetplein 98—a building that has played a significant role in Amsterdam’s art scene since 1985. Originally an abandoned gym, the space was occupied and renovated by Maart Baanders and Det Smeets, who later contributed to the development of the city's studio policy (CAWA). Here, she focuses on the interaction between ceramic objects, kite sculptures, and music, as well as offering courses and workshops.
Choir | Immersive | Experiment
The Choir was originally founded in 2020.
The Choir is an multidisciplinary all female group that composes live with the use of sign language, also known as ‘Soundpainting’.
*Soundpainting is the universal multidisciplinary live composing sign language for musicians, actors, dancers, and visual Artists. The soundpainting language was created by Walter Thompson in Woodstock, New York 1974.
Wanting to implement movement to their compositions, the choir traveled to Sweden in 2021, to learn the sign alfabet from Walter Thompson himself. After this intensive they started experimenting with composing real time, using the symbolic gestures to show the underlying physical level of the sound.
“Our performances are meant to touch you on an intuitive level, we want their audience to recognise themselves in the way we express sound as a ritual”.
Kites | Art | Bamboo
When I was deep in my clay practice, I was relating to the malleable, heavy, and once baked, solid characteristics of the material. Kite-making offered a different lens; embodying a certain sense of poetic longing. When it comes to my kites, I’d rather see them in the sky, than on the wall of a gallery. The work wants to move, be touched by the wind; in that sense you could say the work has succeeded when the piece develops a longing (language) of its own. I think the kite symbolises a personal process of letting go.
What I look for in materials is a clear language that conveys its characteristics. Natural materials are materials with which the artist or craftsperson must somehow collaborate, unlike materials such as plastic, that can be made to do whatever one envisions. Natural materials defy being forced; teaching one a lot about time, patience, flexibility, possibilities and limits. Take bamboo: if I pull too hard; it cracks, I cut too deep; it's no longer usable. I like its straightforwardness, elasticity, resistance, strength and vitality.