CONCEPTS OF ME: Nelly Dansen, Ayşen Kaptanoğlu, Sanne Lok
About this activity.
April 6 to May 5, 2024
CONCEPTS OF ME
Nelly Dansen, Ayşen Kaptanoğlu, Sanne Lok
Opening Saturday April 6 at 5 p.m
An image of women and their place in economic, geopolitical, social systems and patterns. The artists provide their commentary with paintings, animations, films, installations, travel impressions… , new work, made during the workingperiod (2/3-5/4 2024)
This is explored from different perspectives: for example in the context of contemporary Western consumer society and gender roles, of a violently oppressed position in certain countries, or of a personal reaction to contemporary current systems in general.
EXTRA Sunday 24/3 at 3.30 pm.
Michiel Teeuw in conversation with Sanne Lok & Nelly Dansen: “How do societies produce "female-ness", and how do those (self)-produced as "females" create (cultural) capital?
Ayşen Kaptanoğlu (Istanbul, 1985) is an Amsterdam-based artist working with painting and animation. She has a bachelor’s degree in Literature and graduated from Wackers Academy in Amsterdam in 2021. She is currently a resident artist at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and is supported by De Van Bijlevelt Stichting and Leendert van Lier Fonds. Some of her works are being shown at the moment in Amsterdam Museum. Her works investigate power dynamics, sexuality and gender, asking questions around violence, its origins and structures that reproduce it. Using memory and self-experience as means of assistance, she is trying to make sense of what doesn’t make sense in a way to deal with the anger and pain she has against all that violence in this chaos of a male-dominant society. For SIGN she makes a mega painting that is continued on the wall and animations.
Sanne Lok (SANNY) Lelystad, 1998, graduated from Academy Minerva, Fine Arts Groningen in 2023.
“My work is more about the message I want to convey and less about the beauty and finesse. The installations I make have a strong DIY character. I work with film and performance and many texts and build an installation around it that makes the story and my statement stronger.”
In SIGN, Sanne Lok shows the results of a ‘Sleep Over’ (actually performed in SIGN) in which a ‘coming of age’ process from girl dreams to a rebellious young woman becomes apparent. For Sanne, the sweet sleepovers of women in rom-coms turn into a prelude to a revolt!
During her working period she wrote extensive scripts, made notes & film recordings, collected materials, posters, instructional videos, clothes, cuddly toys, furniture…
She wants to show her protest in an abstract way out of a need to indicate that. It is not about a specific item, but about the critical attitude itself and the feeling about it. I’m here and I have a negative feeling! The nice thing is that she sticks to her own insecurity and simply shows her own unrest. Protest can also be the question.
“In my work I try to find a way to turn things that are confrontational and not necessarily pleasant to tackle into something fun”.
Nelke Mast (she/they Jubbega, 1998) alias NELLY DANSEN graduated in 2023 from KABK The Hague, ArtScience.
“Through my work I delve deep into the complexity of identity, exploring the intersections of gender, sexuality and social expectations (…). Inspired by feminist theory (..Ursula K le Guin), queer philosophy (..Judith Pamela Butler) and personal lived experiences (..the personal is political!), I strive to challenge established norms and empower individuals couples to embrace their own authenticity, through the (de)construction of my own self (…) Right now I do that through the perspective of the Bimbo/ I embrace this derogatory stereotype in all its honesty and try to push the hyper femme agenda”
NELLY DANSEN is a conceptual artist and self-titled Bimbo, born in a Frisian forest and raised in a House of Punks. Nelke’s practice is mainly characterized by research into erotic capital and self-conceptualization. She does this by providing visual commentary on gender roles by deconstructing and restoring predominant gender-related sexual archetypes.
In addition to breaking the Freudian Madonna versus ‘The Whore complex’, is the question ‘NELLY DANCING’ a girl with a concept? A force that drives her in her artistic and almost anthropological practice.
She does this through the lens of the new Bimbo era. Nelke’s believes that the 21st century Bimbo is the reincarnation of the 80s punk identity.
In addition to being a doctor in “Bimboism,” NELLY often feels like she is a private detective collecting clues. This ‘Natural Born Archivist’ actually documents almost everything to understand how her position as a queer woman with a female-coded body can add value in this world. This always happens in an intertextual way, accompanied with critical humor and with Joie De Vivre – NELLY DANSEN always finds energy to stand up for the bad or for all the good that is there!
Before her work period at SIGN, Nelke made a study trip to Mexico Cancun ao the beach where Pamela Anderson got married in 1995 + where many Baywatch images were filmed. Nelke wanted to continue her trip to Las Vegas, but ended up in a prejudice and role-affirming confrontation with customs. She was unable to enter Las Vegas and was sent back to Mexico City. This adventure will be a source of inspiration for her new film and installation in SIGN.
SIGN.
SIGN is een levendige en experimentele projectruimte voor actuele interdisciplinaire kunst op nationaal niveau. Zij biedt jonge kunstenaars een podium voor verdere profilering, ontwikkeling en intensivering van hun kunstenaarschap. Daarbij wordt nieuw werk geïnitieerd in bijzondere contexten en wordt de nodige reflectie gegeven. Presentaties zijn er in SIGN, op allerlei locaties, en in openbare ruimte met een variatie aan omstandigheden, invalshoeken, disciplines.
SIGN wordt ondersteund door Mondriaan Fonds Kunstpodium Basis 2021-2022 en ook voor de periode 2023-2024
Location.
SIGN
Winschoterkade 10
9711 EA Groningen
tel 050-3132651
www.sign2.nl