Memorials

by Sen McGlinn and Sonja van Kerkhoff, 1996 -

Memorials (Gedenktekens), Het Zuiderpark, The Hague, 1998. Our work often is concerned with art as experience, combining the conceptual with the physical. In Memorials, the viewer first encounters a plaque with the text	Memorials (Gedenktekens), Arcen Castle Gardens, (KasteelTuinen Arcen), The Netherlands, 1996. Here the text was in Dutch, English, French and German.
of a story about a feminine spirit's encounter with a garden, which ends with her leaving her clothing behind as sign of mercy (memory).

Memorials (Gedenktekens), Kasteltuinen Arcen (The Arcen Castle Gardens), 1996.

Just beyond the plaque (with the text) was a dress form of ceramic tiles imbedded into the ground.

The fairytale-like story helps to emphasize the aspect of process in this art in a language familiar to the visitors so that their response to the art is their response to the tale.

The art experience is a combination of the story, the garden and the tile memorial.

Memorials (Gedenktekens, Gedenksteine, Mémorial),
Kasteeltuinen Arcen (The Arcen Castle Gardens, The Netherlands).

Kasteeltuinen Arcen (The Arcen Castle Gardens, The Netherlands).

Introduction to the story
When I first visited the Arcen Castle Gardens I (Sonja) realised that this work would need to have a 'story' to help the visitors to relate to this work as well as to help 'fit' the work into a public context such as these gardens.

Rather than serving as a bridge to connect the visitor with the ceramic tiles, the story is in fact the art and the tiles are relics. Leftovers from an act of creation.

Shown:

2004 Oceania, Terp Kerk, Urmond, Limburg, The Netherlands.
2001 The ARS AEMULA NATURAE gallery courtyard in the
"Dans le jardin de beux arts" exhibition, Leiden,
The Netherlands.
1998 Het Zuiderpark, (Large Public Park) in The Hague,
The Netherlands.
1996 Kasteeltuinen Arcen, The Arcen Castle Gardens, Arcen,
The Netherlands.
(view postcard, 2001)

Cover of the booklet of the text produced in Dutch, English, German and French for the 1996 exhibition. The walnuts have insets of other works of art. Here: Left to Right are: Virtue of the Rose, Mycelium, Ablutions and I tend to see...

The story was written in English and translated into the following languages.

Nederlands

Deutsch

Français

HatIra
belirtileri

Currently only the German and English versions are here.

Memorials

a transcendent experience

There was green and sunshine all around as she entered the garden. All she had to do was to concentrate on the exceptions, the particularities, and there it was full of diversity: wild and tame plants in various combinations.

Memorials (Gedenktekens), The story (and book), 1996.
This artist book presented the story in Dutch, English, German and French.

Memorials (Gedenktekens),
The story (and book), 1996.
A page in French and one in English.

Yes, there was magic too or perhaps wonder would be a better description. For she could feel a response from the garden towards her; a warming. Much like a spring after a long winter, when things gradually begin to surface and new ideas
take shape.

Now even her
garment
seemed rather plain
with its rows and limitations.

The garden was so inviting that she decided to take her garment off
and she spread it
on the ground.

Memorials, detail of two rows of the 2001 installation.
We planted Forget-me-not plants between the tiles.
By the end of the exhibition some had grown over the tiles.

Below: A resident of The Hague reading the Arabic translation.

It seemed funny that it ever fitted her. It never had.

It was just a vessel
intended
to contain her spirit,
and that
it could never do completely since she had
always been able to look out of the windows.

Memorials, the 2001 installation.

Pages of the English in the book were images of our children playing in a bath of walnuts.

Gosh, she'd worn the thing for so long now that she felt naked without it.

No, more,
she felt she'd shed herself.
It was frightening
for her yet
none of the new ideas around
seemed to notice.

As time passed and her skin could breathe more of the garden, she realised that it was just habit that made the garment feel as if it was who she was.

She felt silly for ever believing that it had been
- silly for feeling frightened
- silly for treating it as an act of rebellion when all she had to do was take it off. So simple really.

Memorials (Gedenktekens), Kasteeltuinen Arcen
(The Arcen Castle Gardens, The Netherlands), 1996.

Six of the sculptures in the 1998 exhibition in the Herb Gardens
of the park, The Hague. Memorials is on the left in the photo.

Yet after, first sitting in some wild trees, then testing the waters
of the garden,
she returned to where
her dress was.

She felt that she owed it
to history
- for all the people and
all the houses
and all the streets still
there
- to leave it
as a token
of mercy.

As a reminder of
what we can wear and
transcend.

Detail towards the end of the 1996 three month installation.

Pages of the Dutch in the book. Drawings by Sonja ( View Details ).
( From the Essences and Particularities Series ).

She lay
on the dress
and hugged
the earth that
had given her
a place
and sank deep
into its body.

Then she was floating up into the skies embracing her spirit. And entranced by the innermost essence of
things and the individuality of each, she chose to stay there.		Above: 2001 installation in a Leiden gallery courtyard. Left: 1996 installation in the Arcen Castle Gardens. Below: 1998, with Hague Arabic-speakers and tourists from Morocco.

The story was written in English and translated into the following languages.

Nederlands

English

Français

HatIra
belirtileri

Currently only the German and English versions are here.

Gedenksteine

eine übernatürliche Erfahrung

Es war überall grün un sonnig, als sie den Garten betrat. Sie brauchte sich nur auf die Ausnahmen, auf die Besonderheiten zu konzentrieren, un schon war er voller Verschiedenheiten: wilde Pflanzen und zahme Pflanzen in verschiedenen Kombinationen.

Memorials (Gedenktekens), The story (and book), 1996.
This artist book presented the story in Dutch, English, German and French.

Memorials (Gedenktekens),
The story (and book), 1996.
A page in French and one in English.

Ja, da war auch Magie, oder vielleicht ist Wunder die bessere Beschreibung. Sie Fühlte eine starke Wirkung des Gartens er strahlte ihr Wärme entgegen. So wie ein Frühling nach einem langen Winter, wenn die Dinge langsam ans Licht kommen und neue Ideen
Gestalt erhalten.

Nun schien selbst
das Kleid
eher schlicht
mit seinen Reihen und Begrenzungen.

Der Garten war so einladend, daß sie sich entschloß, ihr Kleid auszuziehen
und es auf dem
Gras auszubreiten.

Es kam ihr komisch vor, daß ihr Kleid ihr konnte doch nicht sein.

Es war einfach eine Hülle das dafür gedacht war, ihren Geist zu beherbergen. Doch das konnte es niemals vollständig, weil sie schon immer durch die Fenster hatte hinausschauen können.

Memorials, the 2001 installation.

Pages of the English in the book were images of our children playing in a bath of walnuts.

Oh Mann, sie hatte das Ding schon so lange getragen, daß sie sich ohne es nackt fühlte.

Nein, mehr noch.
Sie fühlte sich, als ob sie sich einer Haut entledigt hátte.
Für sie war es sehr unangenehm und doch schien keine der neuen Ideen
um sie herum
etwas davon zu bemerken.

Sie kam sich töricht vor, daß sie immer geglaubt hatte, daß es so sein müßte
- töricht, daß sie sich ángslich fühlte
- töricht, weil sie es als einen Akt der Rebellion angesehen hatte, wo doch alles, was sie tun mußte, war, es auszuziehen.
Tatsßchlich, so einfach.

Doch nachdem sie in einigen wilden Bäumen gesessen und anschließend einige Gewässer des Gartens ausprobiert hatte, kehrte zie züruck der Stelle, wo ihr Kleid war.

Während die Ziet verging und ihre Haut mehr von dem Garten atmeten konnte, wurde ihr bewußt, daß es einfach die Gewohnheit gewesen war, die sie das Kleid hatte fühlen lassen, als ob Es war, das sie war.

Memorials (Gedenktekens), Kasteeltuinen Arcen
(The Arcen Castle Gardens, The Netherlands), 1996.

Six of the sculptures in the 1998 exhibition in the Herb Gardens
of the park, The Hague. Memorials is on the left in the photo.

Alle Menschen
und alle Häuser
und alle Straßen
waren noch da

und sie fühlte, daß sie der Geschichte verpflichtet war, das Kleid dazulassen
als ein Zeichen der Gnade:
als eine Erinnerung
dafür, was wir tragen und war wir überwinden können.

Sie legte sich auf das Kleid und umarmte die Erde, die ihr einen Platz gegeben hatte, und versank tief in ihren Körper.

Detail towards the end of the 1996 three month installation.

Pages of the Dutch in the book. Drawings by Sonja ( View Details ).
( From the Essences and Particularities Series ).

Dann schwebte sie zum Himmel, um ihren Geist zu umarmen.

Und überwältigt von dem innersten Wesen der Dinge und der Eigenart eines jeden, beschloß sie,
dort zu bleiben und über uns zu wachen.		Above: 2001 installation in a Leiden gallery courtyard. Left: 1996 installation in the Arcen Castle Gardens. Below: 1998, with Hague Arabic-speakers and tourists from Morocco.

Outdoor works

Fruit, six hang cast resin forms, 2006.
Nga Hau e Wha (The Four Winds/Breaths), metal sculpture, 2004.
Generating Plant, custom-made birdhouse form, 2004.
The Wedding, intervention/installation during the 9 Dragonheads festival, 2004.
Inland Soul at Sea, 19 hanging forms, 2003.
Colonising Oxford, performances and installations on the streets, 2002.
Fruits of the Earth, installation/intervention, 2003.
With fire we test the gold and with gold we test our servants, wooden sculpture at a Sculpture Symposium in a park in Northern Romania, 2003.
Parking Spaces for Important Visitors, relief painted panels, 2001.
Inspiration, paintings on shaped canvas laid on the floor, 2001.
Just pour les oiseaux (Strictly for the birds), installations and performances during a walk through a forest setting led by a guide, 2001.
Onder vier ogen (Between you and me) , mask-forms hung on trees, with texts and images in the orifices, 2001.
Dans le jardin des beaux arts, 19 snail forms, (in various locations), 2000-2006.
The Living Creature, performances in a rose garden in a public park in London, 1999.
Change is a Law of Nature, 1996, performances on the streets, in Hull and London, U.K. (repeated in other locations in 2001, 2002, and 2004).
Memorials, ceramic tiles laid into the earth, 1996-2001.
Te Koru Iwa, fire drawing at the Oerol Arts Festival, The Netherlands, 1996.
Letters van de Levende :: Letters of the Living, 19 batiked flags, 1996.