BUBBLE GILDING BY PHILIPINE VINKE
Bubble Gilder scouts for locations to hand out free shards of happiness and good fortune
MIRROR INSTALLATION TO BE TRANSFORMED BY PUBLIC FOR GOOD FORTUNE
"Shards bring happiness and good fortune”, according to a Dutch proverb. Dutch artist Philipine Vinke is scouting for extraordinary locations to build her installation. This installation consists of shards of recycled Artmirrors. Every visitor is invited to a piece of happiness and good fortune, symbolised through the gift of one of the many shards to constitute the installation.
During previous displays of this installation, 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”.
It is Vinke’s goal that the installation travels the world. With every new display, the artist curates the shards in accordance with the site and with every pick up the stream of shattered mirrors organically transforms, just as the stream of life itself does.
The installation “Mirrors of Truth” originated when Vinke’s largest artwork ever fell off a gallery wall, 5 days after its first display. The artwork measured over two squared meters. Vinke at that time, was exhibiting with ceramist Harmke Zwep, whose labour also creates a lot of shards.
Before an artwork hits the Gallery-Walls, lots of things go wrong. We all see art as a finished product. But what happens with all the ideas, sketches and failures that do not make it to a Gallery or an Art Fair? They end up as shards. “As both Harmke's and my art generate lots of breakage, I decided to ask Harmke for pieces of her porcelain. Combined the pieces of my Artmirrors, they form “Scherven brengen geluk”/"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 that we call lifetime”.
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.
Previous Displays were in the home town of the artist, Nunspeet and in Yerevan during Armenia Art Fair.
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.
Vinke’s pieces are held in private collections internationally.