Maarten Donders

Verstand van smaak

2012-01-27T09:28:00.000+01:00

A glimpse of reality

2011-08-28T16:56:00.003+02:00

External impulses to a large extent determine our lives. Our life takes place in a setting where actions and images are becomming virueel.Man creates (consciously or unconsciously) its own artificial reality.

wood- steel- messing - glass- stone

300x 150x 200 cm

2011

'Complex Violence' in Podium DAK

2011-08-20T09:41:00.000+02:00

Exhibition of sculptures by Maarten Donders and paintings by Eugénie Dammer.

"Complex Violence 'runs from Saturday, August 20 t / m Sunday, September 4 and is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 13:00 to 17:00. Podium DAK is located at 2a Molenstraat in Geldrop. The entrance can be found in the parking lot of Podium DAK. (Through the steel gate bars)

Information, Ben Kollenburg 0641716164 - benvank@telfort.nl - http://www.podiumdak.dse.nl/

Meshes of the Afternoon - Maya Deren 1943

2011-05-31T11:54:00.001+02:00

Director Deren (born in Kiev) was a leading experimental filmmaker in New York in the forties and fifties. With Meshes of the Afternoon in 1947 she won the International Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Meshes of the Afternoon 1943" is probably one of the most discussed American avant-garde film ever.
Maya Deren clearly reaches back to the surrealism from the '20s (Un Chien Andalou, Luis Bunuel and Dali) but also points in a new direction.
Deren was one of the first women who started working in film, and in this movie for the first time in history elements as psychoanalysis, dream logic and inner reality were used.

The film is a dizzying, nightmarish quest for identity and consciousness, surrealism and dream logic played an important role.
Meshes of the Afternoon was one of the first American films where poetic expressiveness and symbolism were used above a linear plot, and had immense influence on just about everything that came after.

The film assembly from Deren was never seen before, cinematic time and space were deposed of their static character.
In films of Maya Deren, these filmic time and space elements are not bound by traditional rules, but they were used in a very creative way.
Maya Deren explores in her first influential experimental film an unconscious woman who daydreams.
This experimental black and white short film shows the director himself in a threatening dream world in which she always enters the same house.
The similarity between Meshes of the Afternoon and Un Chien Andalou, is the dream experience, generated by cinema.

"True beauty is on the inside"

2011-05-14T10:49:00.004+02:00

"True beauty is on the inside"

Everyone is equal, although…

There will always be a difference in gender, religious belief,

sexual orientation, social class, mental and physical health, racial background etc.

``True beauty is on the inside`` is about similarities and differences, about suffering and undergoing, about winning and losing , but also about what we have become in life.

Installation / wall objects 13 pcs

14x19x8cm 2011

wood - ceramic - tooth - bone - brass - polyester -

goldleave - rubber - lead - fabric

Narrow streets and alleys

2011-04-10T20:49:00.003+02:00

I’m standing in a field

Can’t remember the last time
I felt so lonely

Should I
leave it all behind

Let the grass
grow over

Drive away
to find

places
I’ve never been before

In narrow streets and alleys
along the shore

Filled with people
from all around

Right there..

I want to get lost
never to be found

The Thrill Is Gone

2011-04-07T22:24:00.001+02:00

As much

as I look forward

to the moment
of reunion

a doubtful feeling
comes over me

not the years
or the months
but the wasted hours

of meaningless words
and expensive wine

The Thrill Is Gone
it is useless to wait

Before you know it
the desire starts to whine again

Lullaby -2002- Pipilotti Rist

2011-03-31T09:36:00.000+02:00

Your eyes

2011-03-31T09:16:00.003+02:00

I can hear it..

if I listen to you

your words sound so different than mine

are my gestures

so different than yours

your eyes

have already said everything..

Art as a reflection on the past

2011-03-30T10:49:00.005+02:00

The focus of mass culture "pop art" shifted to more philosophical and therapeutic forms.
Land Art was a form of art that respond to that reflection. Nature has always been a kind of safe place for people who have turned their backs against industrialization and mass culture. To the social discontent that prevailed in the seventies, was expressed by land art artists. Artists were against capitalism. American artists compared the Vietnam War with capitalism and capitalism in the art. They wanted to escape the world of urban bustle, technologies, profit and pollution to start a dialogue with nature.

Walter de Maria ``The Lightning Field`` (1977)

Nature as exhibition space was a way to break away from becoming involved with commercial galleries or space in a museum. Not just on principle, but also because Land art artists felt that a painting or other artwork that was added to an existing space was seen as unnecessary, the room was in fact already finished.
It is clear that there was a romantic and mystical aspect of this art form , engaged in nature was a kind of meditation for the artists.

Like a composer who reads the notes he hears, the game character is important in the work of artists like Opperheim, Walter de Maria and Richard Long, which is only happening on the surface of the landscape. These artists are more interested in conventional characters used as the true dimensions of allowing time and space . These are also the artists who haven't done any physically large interventions in the landscape , which I am interested in.

Richard Long

Midday Muezzin Line 2006

It is striking how both British and American land art around 1970 show similar signs of a new romantic relationship with the landscape.
Simultaneously embody both traditions, however, a radically different approach.
Long used the landscape as an alternative for the city and visualizes it as a 'pure ' state of virgin nature.
In addition, he uses a camera, pencil and paper.
He takes an honest attitude towards the wilderness as he has just discovered and temporarily takes possession. The myth of the landscape remains maintained.

Part of thesis by Maarten Donders titled `` Traces in Time & Space``

Ancient lines and sacred paths

2011-03-29T11:02:00.005+02:00

In a number of ancient cultures an important journey is considered a straight line. In general, a winding path, or at least a path that is not directly straight is usually associated with primitive cultures, and a straight line with civilization. The funny thing is that there is demonstrable evidence that straight and narrow paths, encouraged by the Bible, had a specific meaning for just very old civilizations.

John the Baptist (so it’s written in the Bible) was the voice that cried "create a road through the desert for our Lord, even a path through the wilderness for our God." (Isaiah 40:3, Matthew 3:3).

Indians say about white people who build the roads, that they are curved, while Indian trails are very straight.
In Peru, paths are leading to holy places (often on mountain tops) and demons are waiting on those who dared to stray that way, it was thought.

The mystery regarding to the consistency or the use of straight lines in prehistoric times is only now evident by the many studies that are widely given to this fact.
Though of course the truth is that nature does not manifests itself in straight lines , but rather in circular and flowing movements.
What is actually in contradiction with straight lines and rectangular patterns.
One should not confuse human interference with natural features.

In England (and beyond) there are quite a few publications, illustrated with many maps, showing that prehistoric man would have considerable geometric knowledge, and a thorough understanding of the cosmic phenomena.
The structure of the evolving landscape would therefore be determined. This is a common basis for two research areas, namely that of the ley lines and astronomical orientation of megalithic monuments.
These are interesting phenomena, in which researchers look at the relationship between the locations (from prehistory to the Middle Ages) and their possible meanings, symbolic, cultural, historical, mythical.

Leylines = name for energy pathways where Christians and pagan peoples created their sacred places upon.

The ley research, which basically deals with a possible system in the locations relative to each of prehistoric cult sites, megaliths and shrines, was first examined by Alfred Watkins (The Old Straight Track Ways, 1925) he discovered a grid pattern of straight lines, assumed there was a link to important places.

Despite the boom in publications which have followed on, there is no scientific evidence provided.
So far it remains an intriguing hypotheses. The word Ley, originally 17th century English from the word "Laia", meaning "path in a forest".
Watkins stated the straight caracter of ley lines, as the shortest route between places.
Many old roads and trails arose by following a line along the various points along a certain route.

The main markers could include megaliths, stone circles, burial mounds, ancient stone crosses, sacred trees, wells, old settlements on prehistoric relics built churches and chapels, ancient watchtowers, old fire beacons on mountain tops, cuts in the slope of hills, etc.

Part of thesis by Maarten Donders titled `` Traces in Time & Space``

Sacred lines across the landscape

2011-03-26T15:47:00.010+01:00

Theories on the leylines of prehistory remain enigmatic. To increase the understanding about this phenomenon it is useful to look at straight lines from the early Middle Ages, in written documents which have been preserved. Leylines ,concrete or symbolic, are running across the landscape which have very different functions. Many lines seem to have had a spiritual, sacred character, such as an important part of a death cult . Others were profane, like Roman roads

Across England, there are hundreds of stones, "rows" and "circles". Ranging from a few loose stones to hundreds of meters long avenues.
There are also in Ireland and Brittany again much to be found.

Often there are priests in white robes that may or may not make bloody sacrifices to foreign gods.

The function of these remarkable monuments are frequently described as observatories or as a landing beacon for aliens.
The dating of these huge stone circles and the associated access roads running from 3400 BC, until, (from a few loose stones of worship places), the middle of the Bronze Age (about 1500 BC).

The English landscape has like many other places in Europe, mystical and mythical places and unexplained forms in the landscape that may be left over from an archaic era.
Our ancestors were aware of strong points in the landscape. They felt that these places had a powerful energy, a divine energy.

Here they attempted to liaise with the gods and the cosmos. Here their sanctuaries were located and practiced their religion. All shrines, places of worship in prehistoric megaliths and tumuli were located at the crossroads of energy lines, as previously mentioned.
This was done thousands of years. It was proved that churches, standing stones and cult places lie on straight lines, running over hills and through valleys regardless of the topography.

On the nature and meaning of these lines opinions vary.

You Can also look at:

ancient-lines-and-sacred-paths

sacred and profane landscapes

landscape and myth

Part of thesis by Maarten Donders titled `` Traces in Time & Space``

Butterflies & dragons

2011-03-22T22:58:00.003+01:00

Tanks, Butterflies & Dragons

In 1947 my father lived as a young officer in Indonesia, with the Hussars of Boreel during the police actions at that time.
From England he went by boat with a lot of guys to Java and Jakarta, Indonesia.

"The police action is actually a term used for military intervention to identify.
Apart from the police action (short-term Dutch offensives), the Indonesian War of Independence more like a guerrilla of the Indonesian nationalists against the Dutch troops.

Holland did not recognized the republic as an independent state, but regarded it as an insurrectionary movement in the Dutch East Indies colony
" During daily patrols in the jungle, with tanks and jeeps, which were dangerous enough, my father must have had a huge admiration for the overwhelming nature that surrounded him.

Constant tropical heat, day and night. Between the sounds of war during the day at night there was a very different sound, the sound of the jungle and everything that came to life.
Between all the dangers lurking, painful leeches, swarming insects and fluttering colorful splendor, he most have realize the incredible beauty hidden in the jungle .

This feeling, this magnificent beauty, which was until then virtually unknown to him, must have bin the reason to make a small collection , a document as it were of insects and butterflies.
More than a half century later, I cherish this collection, with particular and sometimes bizarre-looking insects and butterflies. Although the colors are faded, the beauty is gone , this collection is wonderful, is a life of its own, as I look through old books.

This object was part of the exhibition `` Plastieken hertjes & Buzz Light Years `` (Plastic Bambi's and Buzz Light Years) in `` de Overslag `` Eindhoven, Netherlands on March 27 2011

www.deoverslag.nl/

Identity

2011-03-02T09:55:00.007+01:00

Plywood; bronze; ceramics; rubber 80x 120 cm 2011

Who are we...

The connection with everything and everyone around us, gives us fulfillment, meaning and identity. Our identity is inextricably linked with the life we live,the paths we follow and to strings we are attached to.

Who we are is a process, a journey, an adventure.To be human is to be an explorer, not just of the external world but also of the inner world.

Whatever else it means to be human, two experiences determine our lives: we suffer; we die.

One for the road..

2011-03-02T09:19:00.000+01:00

If there was a small party, or you had a nice evening with friends, it will unfortunately always come to an end. One last glass of Pernod to finish it up ....

Eyelashes

2010-11-15T15:06:00.002+01:00

Short artvideo, which was achieved by simple means and simplest technique,(Camera Phone)
It's about the view you get when you look through your eyelashes, looking at a landscape with a narrow view.

Sacred and Profane landscapes

2010-11-03T16:21:00.001+01:00

Peru
On the pampa, south of the famous Nascadesert in Peru (from where you are overlooking the Nascadrwawings), archaeologists have discovered the lost city Cahuachi from the makers of the Nasca lines.
Cahuachi was the ceremonial centre of the Nascaculture, about one thousand years ago and mysteriously disappeared five hundred years later.
What archaeologists have found there in recent decades in the cemeteries, gives some insight into the culture of the Nasca people and the possible meaning behind the mysterious desert drawings .
The population who had their habitat, was probably quite small, but because it was a pilgrimage place it grew into a very large ceremonial centre where many events took place.
These ceremonial events involved the Nasca drawings .
Because of the dry climate (probably one of the driest places on earth), very little rain and wind, discoveries in the cemeteries are well conserved .

At these cemeteries several artefacts and ceramic objects are found decorated with religious motifs.

The discovered pots and cups, in which mythological and symbolic forms are processed, have great similarities with the motifs and symbols in the desert drawings.
This piece of ancient weaving technique, which the nascapeople had developed , gives a little insight (as if you look at a map), how the lines are made in the desert.

The lines of Nazca are the best preserved and largest gathering of world geoglyphs. Dozens of figures of animals, hundreds of geometric shapes and thousands of lines and line patterns are preserved in the sands of the desert and plateau of Peru.

Standing on the surface, the lines seem to disappear, but looking from the air towards it, the size and beauty of the lines becomes clear to see. This shows that the Peruvians had geometric knowledge at that time. Some believe that the Nazca Indians could fly or had contact with aliens. Others say that the lines are intended as expressions of religion: the different figures could also be a symbolic path to the gods.

Part of thesis by Maarten Donders titled `` Traces in Time & Space``

At the Edge of the Wood..!?

2010-10-31T21:22:00.002+01:00

Short artvideo, which was achieved by simple means ( Camera Phone) . A few short lines running through the video like, mysterious appearances at the edge of the forest, the overwhelming nature, myth, the earth, the sun, desert and water, climate change and deforestation within a surreal ambience..

Landscape and Myth

2010-10-12T10:28:00.014+02:00

The myth of the pristine landscape is now centuries old and has evolved through the poetry of Virgil and the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich to the conceptual art of the present.
Nature has always been a kind of escape area for people who turned away from industrialization and mass culture, we see this phenomenon ever since the romance.
Nature takes as it were the prominent place of God, man is now subject to nature.
Nature is the place where you can be alone with the exalted nature. In the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich you can sense the loneliness of a searching soul.

The paintings have a mystical charisma, there is a mood that you experience when you walk in the mountains, that feeling of peace and freedom is reflected in his paintings.

Land and Landscape, could be traced back to the romance.
The "landscape" has lost its innocence and will only expose itself as an ideological construction if we leave out industry, urbanization and traffic jams.
Through this elimination, the nostalgic landscape presents itself as the antithesis of the harsh urban reality.
Myths and rituals are something mysterious to us, because they are related to archaic and ancient cultures.
If you look concretely to the understanding of myth, it’s in fact a story about very basic things that are closely connected to life.
In a way, one can say that myths are not necessarily connected to history, because it can essentially occur at any moment at any time.

For science a myth is the opposite of rational science.
One myth says nothing about insight, says nothing about knowledge, it says something about lifestyle, which belongs to humanity from the beginning.
It arises from the base of humanity.

``Spiral Jetty`` Robert Smithson 1970

Modern artists want to go back to the source.

Where transcendence and religion cease to exist, art has the ability to take over this role.

Modern artists look to classical forms to simultaneously retain its atmosphere and recover them, but also to use these elements into their own work.

It is not the content what is rehearsed, it is the gesture of the myth that is recreated.

The landscape has always been surrounded by a mystical undertone and connected with myths.

Land art has redesigned the feeling of the myth .
The trip from the gallery to the natural world is like entering a time, which is a fusion with nature and therefore it can reveal life, transience, memory and death.

Part of thesis by Maarten Donders titled `` Traces in Time & Space``

You can also look at:

ancient lines and sacred paths

sacred and profane landscapes

Circles & Labyrinths

maps

art as reflection on past

Maps

2010-10-11T19:33:00.002+02:00

Optical illusion

2010-10-10T12:24:00.000+02:00

Watercolor 25x18 cm

Circles & Labyrinths

2010-09-23T21:34:00.003+02:00

A circle is probably the most important and widely used geometric symbol, which also owes its shape to the way sun and moon appear. According to the speculations of the Platonic and Neo Platonic philosophers, a circle is a perfect shape .

Looking at a circle, there is no beginning or end, nor a direction or orientation to read, and is therefore often proposed as heaven and all spiritual.

Concentric circles do also appear when something is thrown into the water. These shapes are often found in prehistoric tombs engraved, can probably be interpreted as sinking in the waters of death.

Labyrinths, what was the meaning for the people who really used it, drawing in the sand or carved in stone? In the beginning, labyrinths are associated with death. The inward movement often indicates the death outwards to regeneration. "Becomming reborn" and death are often compared to the microcosm of the earth and a macrocosm of the human anatomy. At death one returns to Earth, the mother, from were we eventually will be born again.

The presence of a labyrinth in cemeteries often has a ritual meaning, entering the earth.
The labyrinth is both the earth and the human body as a source of life.
Part of thesis by Maarten Donders titled `` Traces in Time & Space``

``Valley of a thousand peaches ``

2010-08-22T11:13:00.000+02:00

Keramiek en hout 55x 155cm

Far away from the hustle

2010-08-21T12:03:00.001+02:00

Tekening inkt, potlood, pastel

150x 150 cm

Maarten Donders & Rene Frik ” Making a sculpture “. 2:22 min.

2010-07-01T22:48:00.001+02:00

Maarten Donders & Rene Frik ” Making a sculpture “. 2:22 min. from Maarten Donders on Vimeo.

A Sculpture for Doel, just below Antwerpen.
A little Abandoned Village.

Women on sofa

2010-06-28T20:04:00.002+02:00

Etching 50x 70 cm 2000

2010-06-28T10:31:00.001+02:00

Dawn to Dusk 2:41 min. from Maarten Donders on Vimeo.

Cosmic labyrinth

2010-06-27T11:40:00.001+02:00

Ceramics
˝ The star suggests the universe of which man is part, the cup or urn are subtle references to the holy grail.
Man in his quest often keep hold on to, trying to find shelter or salvation in faith. With the sphere I refer to nutrition and thus growth, possibly sowing a seed which can germinate again to the birth of something new. A cycle without an end. . ``

The distance between Venus and Mars

2010-06-25T12:37:00.002+02:00

`` The Distance Between Venus and Mars `` is a sculpture but also a suggestion of an ancient device that refers to the classical Gods in a sense. An interesting theme, which was very popular in the Renaissance for both artists and courtiers. This ancient device shows a timeline within a cosmic system . Astronomy and astrology where very popular during the Renaissance, even more the mythological love affairs between gods and mortals .

The Bright blue

2010-06-24T22:38:00.012+02:00

The streets

where I walk

are Changing colour

gray and purple

ochre and orange-brown

My shade

runs behind me

along as the day

passes

and the clouds

leave holes

For the bright blue that appears

What a contrast

against the bright white

as the day goes by

It`s all over..