I presented a lecture about my artistic practice at the De Halve Maen to KLM: 400 Years of Dutch-American Exchange conference in Albany, New York on June 6, 2006

Organized by the New Netherlands Institute

Sotheby’s Dutch kas(t) circa 1689

“Not only an integral part of almost every family home who could afford any type of valuables in the Netherlands in the 17th century, but also to the early settlers in the New World who brought with them this piece of furniture, the ‘kas’ or ‘kast’ stands even today relatively alone as an all-encompassing symbol of Dutch materialistic possession, property and general prosperity.” (Kamil, Of American Kasten and the Mythology of “Pure Dutchness”) Part of the ‘uitzet’ or dowry of a woman given in marriage, her worth or value was placed and contained in this object and moved house along with the bride. The 17th century ‘kast’ was produced in the Netherlands and was an important product/statement of Dutch wealth, design and identity, a symbol of Dutch cultural currency. Upon emigration, if one were wealthy, it was shipped to colonial America, or if one were poor, less intricate copies were made in the colony. The passage of the immigrant and the mutability of assimilation and adaption parallels the kasts’ emigration to America- the Dutch ‘kast’ has been adapted to the colony of Nieuw Amsterdam, or N.Y. “The American kas (or kast) has been perceived as synonymous, indeed almost inextricably intertwined, with the material life of early New York. Such an enduring relation has only served to exacerbate a curious process of mystification about the “Dutchness” of New York.” (Kamil, ibid)

The New Netherland Project was established under the sponsorship of the New York State Library and the Holland Society of New York. Its primary objective is to complete the transcription, translation, and publication of all Dutch documents in New York repositories relating to the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland. This unique resource has already proven invaluable to scholars in a wide variety of disciplines. It also serves to enhance awareness of the major Dutch contributions to America over the centuries and the strong connections between the two nations. The Project is supported by the New York State Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New Netherland Institute.

Money Talks - the recyclability of cultural currency in contemporary exchange systems

Beavers weave stolen cash into dam

April 25, 2006

Invited as a guest lecturer at University of Brighton, Ridgway conducted a seminar for Ph.D. research candidates about her work as a visual artist and her approach to research-based art.

Research Department, Faculty of Arts and Architecture
University of Brighton
Brighton, UK

Uses and Abuses of Art History

Methods and modes of working, games played in an era where everybody forgets everything, historicity is considered a faux pas. ‘In an age that has forgotten how to think, first of all, historically,’ (Jameson) it is refreshing to discuss the application of history, or in this case art history within the field of play- contemporary art. My point of view is a personal one, built upon years of working that involves aspects of decolonization, displacement mappings, ersatz notions organized within a semi ‘pataphysical nomenclature in a process, a labour of love.

Suprematism (White Cross) Alexander Brener’s dialogue with Kazimir Malevich

In a quasi-archival logic, I rework history and art history in contemporary practice and part of this process is the outcome of a new ‘archive’, or rather platform or podium, installation or staging, which all seem to contain those things that are ‘found yet constructed, factual, yet fictive, public yet private.’ (Foster)
By re-appropriating the past into the present, art history is still alive; reworked, reorganized, recycled and its dilemma of being forgotten as quickly as it is made, is all part of the process.

editor’s note: I have seen the Malevich in the Stedelijk before and after Brener’s intervention. I could swear that I saw a dollar sign (or is it the aura?) appear after the restoration.

Panel: Writing Histories of Contemporary Art, AAH conference

April 8, 2006
University of Leeds
Leeds, U.K.

From September 1 to October 15 2005, I continued working on my ‘Manhattan Project’ during a residency at Sculpture Space in Utica, New York. Interviews, images and text form the basis of my research and use the medium of internet as a space Mohawk Valley

On October 12th I launched the website with an opening in the White Room Gallery. For the presentation I asked visitors to vote on the sketches I was making in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish), a misnomer. I then told the Amish how people had voted but they still choose a different design and a new quilt will be produced, by hand, in the coming months.

Dutch-American Day

On November 16th, 2005 the work Boogie Woogie Migration, a quilt combining the Dutch and American flags, inaugurated Dutch-American Day at Utica, NY city hall. The quilt disappeared after two days, as veterans working in the building challenged my usage of the flags and complained about the apparent deconstruction of the American(not the Dutch?)flag. They didn’t listen to the explanation of my conceptual approach, nor the reference to Piet Mondrian (Dutch/American), nor to the Betsy Ross myth (scraps of red, white and blue) for that matter. I didn’t even have time to arrange a photographer. So much for freedom of speech in the land of the free and the home of the brave.