Hi, My name is Philipine Vinke

This is my application for my mirror-installation to be exhibited at Extended Mind Group Exhibition.

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If you choose my installation for Extended Mind, Berlin will be the second exhibition outside The Netherlands where my installation is displayed.  During previous displays (amongst which Armenia Art Fair in Yerevan) people were inspired to share beautiful every day stories of health, wealth, happiness and sorrow. Often people chose to gift their piece to a loved one in need of good fortune. “Every pick up comes with a personal story. Each time I am amazed by the intimacy of my audience”. The site specific installation is therefore filled with Extended Mind experiences. As Shards are taken off the installation (and at future exhibitions being replaced with new shards), the installation changes over time.

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The installation originated when my largest artwork ever fell off a gallery wall in January of 2018, five days after its first display. The original artwork measured over two squared meters. At that time I was exhibiting with ceramist Harmke Zwep, whose labour also creates a lot of shards. “I decided to ask Harmke for pieces of her matte white porcelain. Combined with the pieces of my ArtMirrors, they form “Shards of Happiness”. The installation symbolises all the shards and breakage people create while living. Life is a succession of failures and all these compose a beautiful string of moments we call lifetime”. As people share their stories, the installation is a true “Gesammtkunstwerk” of myself and my audience. In Berlin the mirror-installation will reflect beautiful light emitted by other artworks, through wich the depth and dimensionality of the artwork is enhanced even further.

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Extended Mind and site specific

As the shards consisting the artwork are (wo)man-manageable in measurements and weight, I have always been able to build it up in spots provided to me by the curators of the exhibitions. The placing of the pieces is not so much a well thought out plan, as it is a natural instinctive process. I can work with whatever spot is given for the installation to be displayed.

The placing (video) of the artwork is a fluid and flowing process during which I tap into the energy of the site, as well as engage with the people who are busy around me doing whatever they do. I like talking to whoever is around and takes and interest. During former building processes I have talked to artists, curators, photographers (who seem to have a special interest in watching me display the work and taking photo’s of the process), cleaners and early visitors.

The installation can be both modest as well as demanding. It “works” in small spaces as well as in large open areas. It upholds itself outside in the open as well as indoors. I truly hope you find it in your heart to give the installation “Shards of Happiness” a chance to be displayed during Extended Mind, as it is an amalgamate of past and future stories. I would be proud if the installation gets to reflect the light of artworks, I truly believe it can create a beautiful symbiosis between art, light,  the site and the public. It is also my sincere wish to be able to hand out shards of the installation to the public. I hope we are able to work out a way of enabling the shard-sharing experience.

 

Solo-spot

I aim for a symbiotic relationship of the artwork with its surroundings. A light exhibition is the perfect place for it, to reflect beautiful light. If it is not possible to find a spot where ‘Shards of Happiness’ can create a symbiosis with the exhibited light art, it is my whish that the work is displayed in one of the alcoves available. The Alcove, lit with one harsh white light directed at a wall or the ceiling. As both the sharp edged shard of the glass mirror and the concrete walls make harsh materials, hard white light completes a triangle relationship. Visitors are allowed to walk into the Alcove to feel absolutely surrounded by the installation. They view themselves mirrored in the shards wich brings an overwhelming emotion to the viewer, thus filling the installation further. At previous displays people have confided in me their perceived emotions, they have started to cry, started to laugh, they have wondered “Is this life?”, “What mess have me made?” or they have felt the opposite: “I feel I can bring wholeness"

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Mirrors are uniquely qualified to reflect light, without it, their purpose is zero. Therefore the

Berlin Light Festival is a unique opportunity for the installation “Shards of Happiness” to fulfill its purpose: reflect light and bring joy and good fortune.

 

 

Bio & Emerging

Philipine Vinke, (1968, Netherlands) works and lives in the artists village of Nunspeet and is a founding member of „The Nunspeet School ‘. She plays an important role in the artist community of Nunspeet where she works and lives with her family. She coined her innovative technique Bubble Gilding, of which first works were created in 2015. The technique evolves and flows as time passes.

 

Vinke only started exhibiting in 2016. She is currently placing baby steps on the international art-platforms,

Extended-Mind is the first time Vinke will be exhibited in Germany.  Earlier this year Vinke exhibited in Dubai, as well as in the Netherlands and Armenia.

 

Core themes in Vinke’s work center around specific social constructs she calls ‘bubbles’. Powerful examples are national flags, the monetary system and paradoxes in (lack of) transparency in public and private lives. A former coinery enhances the themes Vinke works with, such as the money system. Vinke has exhibited in former banks before and she currenly occupies a solo-space in a fomer bank building.

 

She has experimented with light objects before.

She lit the backside of her ‘Obsolete Ego’s’ with Italian

foldable LED strings. She concluded that back-lighting of

these series turn these autonomous artworks into a

day & night piece each with its own effect on the viewer.

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Vinke’s pieces are held in private collections internationally.

 

 

Installation: Shards of Happiness (2018)

Measurements: unknown, measurements can be adopted according to space available. At previous displays measurements have been 4x3 metres and 5x 2,5 metres)

 Materials: recycled mirror, aluminium industrial waste, goldleaf. Shards vary in sizes and are all 6 mm thick. Porcelain 2 mm’s, (LED light)

 

 

All Photos free of rights

Photo credits:

Photo pick up & video’s: credits by Artist

Photo Installation and detail: credits by Hans Verduin, and Nata Sokolowska