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Katinka van Gorkum

zine video , to write , performance , Literary , Body , LGBTIQ+ , Gender ,Experimental , Documentary , Digital technology , crossover , Conceptual , Autobiographical , Artistic research

Katinka van Gorkum (Rotterdam, 1988) is a visual artist, performer and writer interested in the interior as a figure for interiority. Van Gorkum's life and practice are intimately intertwined, with the concept of 'a house' at the center. She sees a house not as a fixed concept but as a skin, a part of the surface with which people cover the world around them. Through the private domain, she investigates the interior world of humans.

2022 - Room I - Oysters
2022 - Kamer I - Oesters - 'It feels like I'm doing something I'm not supposed to. I enter your room, leave my suitcase by the table and drop into the armchair. What do I hope to find here? Do I expect this room to embrace me too? I don't know if that's possible. If this oyster had opened for me of its own accord, I could share the shell with you. Now I'm prying it open. Will you survive that?' 'Room I - Oysters' is a short story written in the context of the art project Beste Anna,. In this story, the figure of the openly lesbian Rotterdam writer Anna Blaman functions as a driving force for questions, conversations and correspondences about feminism, women writers and the canon, being different, loneliness and friendship. With this research, Katinka also explores Anna Blaman as a character for a future novel. In 'Kamer I - Oesters' the main character enters Anna's with a suitcase full of books by other writers, whispers their words into the cracks in Anna's walls and seduces Anna with a peacock dance. Anna Blaman (1905-1960) was openly lesbian, a big taboo at the time, but did not see herself as a champion of a movement. An important theme in her work is the question of whether we can really know another. The characters in her novels are often alone and long for another, who always remains unattainable. In 1948 Blaman published the novel Eenzaam Avontuur (Lonely Adventure), which caused quite a stir because of several (homo-)erotic characters that appear in the book.
Dear Anna, - a research on the writer Anna Blaman (1905-1960)
2022 - Beste Anna, - een onderzoek naar de schrijfster Anna Blaman (1905-1960) - In my mind I walk through Anna Blaman's room. I leaf through her books, take off my shoes and secretly lie down on her bed. I read the letters she received from friends and lovers, follow her tracks and try to look through her glasses. Anna, are you there? Anna Blaman (1905-1960) was a writer from Rotterdam. She was openly lesbian, a big taboo at the time, but did not see herself as a champion of a movement. An important theme in her work is the question of whether we can really know another. The characters in her novels are often alone and long for another, who always remains unattainable. In 1948 Blaman published the novel Eenzaam Avontuur (Lonely Adventure), which caused quite a stir because of some (homo-)erotic characters that appear in the book. With this research I want to explore Anna Blaman as a character for a novel. Through Anna's eyes I want to look at the experiences of the contemporary woman from a different, historical perspective. Together we navigate the (im)possibilities of human contact. An important theme in Anna's work is the question of whether we can truly know another. The characters in her novels are often alone and long for another, who always remains unattainable. For me, Anna functions as a driving force for questions, conversations and correspondences around feminism in the Netherlands, writing women and the canon, being different, gay and women's emancipation, loneliness and friendship. I collect the images, texts and sounds that I find and make in a virtual space in the SketchUp program. My research space slowly transforms into the private room of the character Anna.
2019 - Orientation Device - Deviating from 'here' to 'there'
2019 - Orientation Device - Deviating from 'here' tot 'there' - “Orientations are about how we begin; how we proceed from “here,” which affects how what is “there” appears, how it presents itself. In other words, we encounter “things” as coming from different sides, as well as having different sides. Husserl relates the questions of “this or that side” to the point of “here,” which he also describes as the zero point of orientation, the point from which the world unfolds and which makes what is “there” over “there.” (Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology) Orientation Device – deviating from “here” to “there” is a point of (dis)orientation, re-orienting visitors and participants in space. As a point of departure it proposes a zero point in the program SketchUp, geo-located and materialized in the exhibition space. Along the drawing axes – the red x-axis, green y-axis and blue y-axis – a process of mapping takes place with the use of data derived from a communal spreadsheet that was used by participants to imagine and compose their presence in the spacetime of the Performatik festival. Visitors are welcome to ask for directions, rethink their position and gain some perspective on the notions of “here” and “there,” with the help of O. Dee – a virtual navigation expert.
2018 - Marketplace
2018 - Marketplace - Marketplace consisted of 12 online advertisements placed on the website 2ehands.be, a Belgian website meant for selling secondhand goods. The advertisements were created based on one-on-one conversations during a performance, in which the audience was presented with a series of photos of objects that belonged to the artist. They were asked to decide which objects they should sell online, and justify their choice. The ads include all the various reasons why the object was no longer desired as stated by the several participants of the performance. All objects were eventually sold/given away via 2ehands.be, except for the lamp. The first two images show the advertisements in a virtual marketplace that is part of a virtual studio in the program SketchUp.
2015 - Talk Show - The starting point for this installation was the idea of ​​a talk show on television: from politics to fashion, within this context every subject can be discussed. The sets for these tv shows often resemble a living room, functioning as an extension of the living rooms in which the talk show is being watched. In this installation, the potential set for a talk show was covered in photographs taken in the home of the artists' parents. The private is on public display. Without the fourth wall, no conversations could take place.
2016 - Antoine Dansaertstraat, b401, open - On the occasion of the exhibition De Context, the door of the artists' bedroom was removed and placed in Museum Flehite, Amersfoort, for the duration of the exhibition.
2016 - To be... Polly D. - In the video To be…Polly D. Van Gorkum used alter egos to fictionalize an autobiographical storyline. The primary one, Polly, looks like a thinner drag-queen version of singer Dolly Parton. She first emerged during some intense theme-parties (bordering on performance art) at the artists' home. To be... Polly D. is a short documentary fiction that treats the life of Polly according to two other alter egos: Zuster van der Gaag, the nurse of an institution where Polly was treated, and K. van Gorkum, a glossier version of the artist herself. Their stories recall meeting Polly, Polly moving to different houses, at a certain moment becoming depressed and having to move to an institution, going on holiday, and having a relapse. The story of Polly is a distorted version of Van Gorkum's autobiographical story, including bouts with depression. As Van Gorkum put it, she 'didn't have to make up any of it.' Text by Pia Louwerens
2016 - And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff - The work And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff deals with the fear of becoming homeless. The work consists of the remains of Van Gorkum's previous works, such as Talk Show, for which she printed pictures of her parental home on textile and Monkey – The Omniscient, a work about instincts and illusions. As in the animal kingdom, people too have the primal urge to mark their territory. Van Gorkum defines this in an image as we recognize throughout our daily rituals. As the wanderers on the street are clinging to the luggage they can't let go of, Van Gorkum recycles the material that was once used to shape her dreams to visualize her nightmare.
2015 - Waiting Until the Show is Over - For the duration of one hour, the artist sat on a chair, waiting until the show was over while other performances took place in the same space, getting the attention from the spectators.
2019 - Distance Learning in Close Proximity - In Distance Learning in Close Proximity we explore Van Gorkum's virtual research space as if it were an Airbnb. On stage is a performer looking at her computer screen. We follow her as she explores her new temporary stay, trying to apply the instructions given by the hosts.
2019 - Dear Visitor (research portfolio) - This video portfolio was made while completing a post-master trajectory at a.pass - Advanced Performance Studies in Brussels - which is a platform for artistic research(es). Feel free to skip, skim and scroll through the video as you please.

Artist-in-residence bij Stichting B.a.d. Rotterdam

Date:
Location: Rotterdam
In association with: Stichting B.A.D.

For ten months I was artist-in-residence at the Bad Foundation in Charlois. I used this period to focus on writing literary fiction. During my residency I took several writing courses (including at The Writers Guide to the Galaxy) and I participated in the studio routes Groot Atelierweekend Rotterdam and South Explorer via Stichting Bad. For these exhibitions I made two zines with my own texts, an installation with text and I recited my own work.

https://www.foundationbad.nl/guest-studios/guests/

A.pass, post-master at Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies, Brussels, BE

Date:
Location: A.pass
In association with: A.pass Brussels, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting Theodora Niemeijer Fonds

a.pass (advanced performance and scenography studies) is an artistic and educational research environment that welcomes research practitioners, from all professional backgrounds in an international self-organized, collaborative and trans-disciplinary program.

At a.pass I have started exploring the notions of interior and interiority in virtual space using the design program SketchUp.

You can see my activities at a.pass in my video portfolio in the link.

https://apass.be/blockboard/my-case/?user=126

Guest teacher at Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague

Date:
Location: Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten
In association with: KABK

From 2013 - 2016 I worked as a guest teacher at the Royal Academy of Arts The Hague. During one semester a year I created a workshop for the second year students at the Fine Arts Department.

From 2020-2021 I worked as a guest teacher doing studio visits with the second, third and fourth year students at the Fine Arts Department

The Holls Collective

Date:
In association with: Mondriaan Fund (for presentation at Art Brussels), Stroom Den Haag

From 2013-2017 I was part of The Holls Collective:

"The Holls Collective is a group of eight artists, who use their group dynamics as both subject and medium. While retaining their individual practices, the members of The Holls operate as an interdisciplinary machine, involving physical labor, longevity and endurance to create performances, videos and space-invading installations."

http://www.thehollscollective.com/about

20 B - Artwork in public space for the Municipality of Rijswijk

Location: Brede School Muziekbuurt
In association with: Gemeente Rijswijk

20B is a permanent sculpture for the playground of the new location of a primary school. The work consists of 8 elements that are derived from a working period during which the artist installed her studio inside the school. Where the school focuses on learning and facts, the world on the playground stands for play and fiction. 20b is an attempt to turn the playground into a place where memories find shelter, reality can be questioned and stories begin.

https://katinkavangorkum.com/20B-1
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