anika van der westhuijzen

Project #6

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:19:52 +0300

There is one other thing that I worked on this week but have not yet photographed. It’s a bit hard to explain but I will try. I spoke to my gran the other day and she asked me to help her remember all the ages of everyone in our family (we have 25 family members). So after that conversation I tried to think of a way to simplify it for her. I mean, we all get one digit older each year so it should be quite basic. What I then did was take a family photo (with everyone on it) and I cut a little circle (the size of badges in relation to the people) onto each person’s breast. Then I put a white sheet as the bottom layer with the age of each person appearing in his “badge”. If you pull the white sheet down a centimeter, everyone’s age increases by a year.

I hope this makes sense. Just try to imagine the idea and if necessary I can photograph it and put it here.

Project #5 This is the most recent project. I was cutting up my...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:13:49 +0300

Project #5

This is the most recent project. I was cutting up my map and playing with it when I thought about spatial perception and how people actually have no idea where things are. Even in a small country such as South Africa. So I picked 5 places that have sentimental value to me and gave them to three people to place on the map. I also let each person add one other place that was sentimental to them. It looks really cool if its lit up and I think it would be even better with about two or three times the amount of layers. The size of this is A3.

Project #4 This project is a diagram of the kinds of...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:08:36 +0300

Project #4

This project is a diagram of the kinds of relationship I am convinced that all people need to flourish. I have divided the individual into three parts (namely spiritual, emotional and practice), where

Spiritual = religion, values, virtues

Emotional = family, social, wellbeing

Practice = work, hobbies, interests

So then the conclusion that I have drawn is that we all need people above, beside and below us in all areas of our lives in order to flourish.

Project #3 This one you have seen. It’s not great. But...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:04:00 +0300

Project #3

This one you have seen. It’s not great. But there are many aspects about the idea that I like so I just put it in as it might spark another idea.

Project #2 This is more of a tongue in cheek kind of metaphor...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:01:40 +0300

Project #2

This is more of a tongue in cheek kind of metaphor that has been drifting in my mind for a few years now. I learned to drive in Pretoria and I often sat in mildly moving city traffic in between traffic lights and I always thought that traffic is like a game. You think you play it well, but there are other players that are doing their own thing and it’s not always possible to judge the success of a move. The words aren’t that great yet, but I didn’t want to spend any more time on it unless you think it’s a feasible project.

Project #1 I had some conversations last term on which I wrote...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:57:14 +0300

Project #1

I had some conversations last term on which I wrote short reports. They were just normal conversations, but it was all about paying attention and that. So then I made these two conversation mazes that shows three levels of the conversation. What was said, what topics were dealt with and lastly the inherent reason why the conversation took place. If I go forward with this project I would consider embroidering all the lines or printing it on a larger scale.

lights from the Empire State Building, NY

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:16:45 +0300

lights from the Empire State Building, NY

a visual representation of how the key concepts in my artists...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 23:58:23 +0300

a visual representation of how the key concepts in my artists statement relates to the works I have made

The ideas that I am dealing with at the moment

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 23:49:54 +0300

My work deals with the complexity of essences. Here it is important to note the discrepancies between essence and simplicity. I aim to strip everyday complexities to their fundamental nature in an attempt to make sense of them. What has been interesting to note, however, is that their essence proves to be anything but simple. Everyday concepts such as motivation or personal paradigms cannot be simplified without losing the basic nature of the concept. These cases become all the more intricate and multifaceted as strip them of their situational application. I have become especially aware of the relativity of relevance due to the composite nature of human relations and interactions. My works therefore might seem minimalist and lacking context at first glance, but deeper investigation, study and thought will prove the contrary. Each work is a puzzle in itself; a network of information to contemplate.

My art should enable the viewer to reflect upon life; experienced life at present, but also the context and history that he is situated in. My work investigates the structures by which I perceive, understand and deal with life. It maps the continuum between the defined and undefined as I consolidate underlying connections between ideas, facts and people. I am aware of the irreducible complexity of human intention- a complexity that often obscures the transparency of the past and the present. I thus aspire to stabilize mundane complexities such as emotion, motivation, stereotypes and death by reducing these qualities to quantitative studies and graphs that are recognized by the brain as concrete, linear and therefore graspable concepts. In some instances, explanations and texts confuse, while simple illustrations or installations can break even the most intricate and delicate concept down to its most fundamental and significant form.

The quotidian subject matter that I chose to work with engages and involves the viewer, for he or she should not feel alien to these surroundings. Its pedestrian nature challenges the viewer to be more aware of the potential of everyday objects (like pipes, lights, x-rays and thread) and the intricacy of the mundane (shadows, death, definitions and stereotypes). I work with tactile materials such as glass, ceramics and wool in conjunction with ephemeral qualities of light, shadow, depth and transparency. The focus on line and form in my work is very specific and intentionally conscious of the connotations and denotations it conveys. I work economically with colour and use it only when it contributes to the meaning of the work or aids the differentiation between sets of data. My works are purposefully stripped of decoration and clutter. Each element in each work carries significant meaning and functionality, but could be alternatively interpreted to alter the implication of the work.

Recent research and discussions have led me to the field of Infographics and the display of information as art. This shift has enabled me to translate personal and collective memories into meaningful and practical concepts and to scale these memories down to complex essences. My works therefore become at the same time entirely involved and detached. I have developed a pseudo-scientific approach which utilizes the structures of science (x-rays, graphs, databases and spreadsheets) to quantify subjective concepts. At the moment I have settled with fairly simple charts and graphs, but anticipate that the visualizations may become more complex in the second semester. I would like to incorporate more found objects and I look forward to exploring new ways to distil the world around me.

Portraits of my class mates for purposes of conducting a study

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0300

Portraits of my class mates for purposes of conducting a study

A moveable feast Photography and painting

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0300

A moveable feast

Photography and painting

Willem Boshoff

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0300

Willem Boshoff

Theo Jansen - kinetic sculpture Where art meets engineering

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:37:00 +0200

Theo Jansen - kinetic sculpture

Where art meets engineering

Design Indaba quotes:

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:18:29 +0200

“everything is invented, so new things can be invented and the way things are aren’t how they have to be” John Bielenburg

“the fragility of an idea” FoxP2

“it’s not a choice between ethics and aesthetics (or concept, I might add), they will meet each other at the other end” Urban Think Tank

“handdrawing is essential to innovation” Heinrich Wolff

“we like to fail really hard and fast” Hellicar and Lewis

“like a swiss army knife; simole, compact, but works together as a unit” Tsai

“A beautiful idea needs to be wooed and persisted” Tsai

“I want to be known as a creative doer of strategic ideas” Porkey Heffer

“never stop evolving - always do something new!” Porkey Heffer

“to do great things you don’t need a plan, money or time” Paul Sahre

Design (and art) is a comfort with not knowing where a thing is going” Paul Sahre

endless possibility

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:58:55 +0200

endless possibility

Yuya Ushida - retractable designs

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:23:00 +0200

Yuya Ushida - retractable designs:

"imperfection is beauty madness is genius and it is better to be absolutely ridiculous than..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:22:09 +0200

“imperfection is beauty
madness is genius
and it is better to be absolutely ridiculous
than absolutely normal”

"those who danced seemed quite insane by those who could not hear the music"

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:21:00 +0200

“those who danced seemed quite insane by those who could not hear the music”

- Angela Monet

STUDIOWORK METHODOLOGY

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:14:08 +0200

Collect plant materials, notebooks, rings and brooches

Do quick unplanned water dropping sketches often

Make trinkets out of clay, play with layering of transparencies and cut-outs

Go to exhibitions and travel to interesting places (decor shops count)

Gather photographs as I encounter profound views

Listen to photographers, marketers, writers and leathermakers describe their passions

REFLECT | EDIT | ORGANIZE

Reflect on conversations and interesting aesthetics that I have come across

Edit cut-outs, make more and try different layering methods

Organize my visual research (magazine pages, online findings and cellphone pictures)

RECORD | DOCUMENT | REPRESENT

Should work on this one…..

Record sometimes with cellphone camera to create distance and see more objectively

REFLECT | EDIT | ORGANIZE | CURATE

Would like to reflect upon past word more and edit

More often than not leave projects the way they were after finishing them the first time

Reflection and editing may give more inspiration to curating

PUBLISH | SHARE | BROADCAST

Publish on Tumblr

Share photographs with my mom

REFLECT | ADAPT | EDIT

The road less travelled

“The camp of women is ruled by silence and darkness The misery...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:41:00 +0200

“The camp of women is ruled by silence and darkness

The misery kindly concealed by the night

Here and there a minute light is flickering

Where the Angel of Death is lingering.”

Poem by AG Visser, The Youngest Brother

reflection on the Boer War concentration Camps in South Africa