Sonja's c.v. | Sonja's exhibitions | Art reviews on Sonja's blog | Sonja's other projects | Sonja's Artworks arranged by Medium
Sonja's c.v. | Sonja's exhibitions | Art reviews on Sonja's blog | Sonja's other projects | Sonja's Artworks arranged by Medium
Photographic discs are scattered over the circular " New Space / Takawaenga"
by Ursula Christel.
Detail of "Tomato Soup"
Detail of "The earthworks that slip and slide," spoil spilling over a corrugated koru by Jeff Thomson, "Tomato Soup," "The Shaman and the healing tree"
"Tomato Soup," 2024, arranged adjacent to a sculpture by Jeff Thomson
bagged spoil with photo showing it being dumped on our land by neighbour.
An absurd title for a an absurd situation. $20 per bag of trespass. Edition of 2000.
Tulips from Istanbul, 1997, cast resin and nylon.
Tulips from Istanbul plaque, photo-print on dubond, 2018, 20 x 15 cm, $250, Edition of 35.
Cultural symbols always have a history and are always in flux. “Tulips from Istanbul” was made in response to the political debate on what is a "Dutch" national culture.
Texts on the plaque over a 2001 photograph of 20 Tulips from Istanbul installed in the 1689 entrance to the Ars Aemula Naturae gallery in Leiden, The Netherlands.
"It is not a tale invented but a confirmation of what went on before it"
The Qur'an
"The Dutch House of Orange has reigned since 1572. The tulip from Turkey gained popularity in West Europe in the early 1600s"
>> The Shaman and the Healing Tree (photograph of Dutch artist Jessy Rahman), Kawakawa tree sapling, milk box, mirror, custom made shelf
Made for the Tiakina | Take Care show in response to a zoom session and this photograph of Jessy (The Hague, The Netherlands) taken in August 2020 next to the infertile fig tree adjacent to the Quartair Gallery and Jessy's studio.
We discussed the covid-19 pandemic and Sonja offered the Kawakawa tree (a New Zealand native with healing properties) for Jessy 'in quaratine' (mirrored from the other side of the globe) in his shaminist mask.
This interview is in this video or you can listen to Jessy here on youtube
Thanks to Di Daniels of The Far North for this Kawakawa sapling as the one for the Tiakina show was planted next the Papakura Art Gallery in south Auckland.
>> Three of the photographic "Child's Play" series, prints on alumium featuring my children.
misFit – Rāwaho (with thanks to Te Toroa Pōhatu for te reo Māori, Cle Tukuitonga for the taxidermy) 2022
I took a photograph of the fur of this Northland possum
which is the backdrop to the poem inside the gold frame. Only the framed print on duplex (fade proof acrylic) is for sale as a print edition of 19.
stuff / he mea nui Stuff is the old English word for cloth and here is tongue in cheek with the Māori phrase, literally, a big thing yet also the same phrase references a well
known proverb, which asks what is most important thing in life. The two images of my children could be the answer here. Images of my children feature in the works across
the wall to the final work, "The earthworks that swell and slide", 2023
Limited edition print on duplex (fade proof acrylic), 3/19. $100 framed.
Top, middle and bottom rows of the microscopic imaging (courtesy of AUT) correlate to the height from 4 metres down to the bottom metre
of the spoil dumped on our Kawakawa urban property in Nov 2022.
misFit – Rāwaho, taxidermy, kiwi feather, egg, pool noodle,
framed text on duplex. Each print is in a second-hand frame. $450
Two of the "Child's Play" works
The trespass spoil dumped into our ngahere (grove of trees) by a new neighbour in Nov 2022 is sprinkled over this ode to a pioneer of the corrugated
Bottoms Up, half a glass full of trespass spoil taken out of our wetland.
Part of the theme of the unbounded is the introduction of mutations during the 4 week exhibition and I introduced this glass 2 weeks into the exhibiton after a conversation about pollution into our wetland of this trespassing fill. So I scooped a glass full of this trespass spoil out and positioned it under the column of the "Child's Play" images.
>> "Closing the gap (Child's Play) Whakawhiti i te āputa (Te takaro a Te tamaiti)", 2018
on the river Waal, Gelderland. Edition 1/50, $400. Photographic print on dubond. 10 x 15 x 1 cm
"Black handed (Child's Play) He tiwha te ringaringa (Te takaro a Te tamaiti)", 2018
The Hague, Edition 1/50, $400. Photographic print on dubond. 10 x 15 x 1 cm
Right: One of the "Wrappings"
Left: "The Image"
The text along the ribbon reads:
The spectacle is mesmeric in order to be successful
Silkscreen on paper, 40 x 30 cm, ribbon + ink. Edition of 15. $600. I took this photo of my week old son in 1990, then silkscreened this and waited till I found a story for it, as expressed in the text.
And one of the "Wrappings" Text: This is a law of nature, the strong survive, 1994, silkscreen on nappy
This is my eldest son again, now almost a year old and this is one of 24 images and texts in the 12 metre long, Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen. These phrases were things I felt or was told when I continued to take my baby with me out into the world. It was my response to being told that as a mother I had to keep my baby in the domestic world. sonjavank.com/wrapping.htm
Slide show and tellings at The Shutter Room
Free entry, bring biscuits for the cuppa. Each talk will discuss 20 to 40 works.
Depth in Venice
Sunday, 7 April, 3-3:30 pm
followed by afternoon tea, includes Q and A. A smorgesbord of art seen during Sonja's
7 day 2022 Venice Biennale visit.
Fuzzy Edged Feminism
Thursday: 11 April 5 pm
Sonja’s contributions to the books, Feminist Activisims (Valiz, 2020)
Mix and Stir, New Outlooks on Contemporary Art from Global
Perspectives (Valiz, 2021). Focus on her artworks that blur boundaries and media.
The Gardeners
Friday: 19 April 9 pm
In 2006 Sonja co-created an interactive wall projection intended to 'garden' our movements - on interactive projects in relation to the social environment.
The art of community - on curating as process
Thursday: 25 April 5 pm
Artists are often seen as unique or singular but the reality is that our ideas are shaped by interaction. A show and tell of 3 decades of curating exhibitions in the Netherlands, the UK, and Aotearoa.