EARTH TALES

EARTH TALES / IERDE FERHALEN / KUENTA DI TERA

What is your relationship to the land on which you find yourself? Do you try to dominate, control, straightforwardly arrange the land? Do you associate with the land, becoming part of it yourself? Do you use the land for agriculture, raw materials or economic gain? And what do you give to the land yourself? How is this dealing determined by your worldview, beliefs, social position, body and life history?

From Feb. 14 to March 16, 2025, VHDG presents the exhibition EARTH TALES / IERDE FERHALES / KUENTA DI TERA at a new location in the city. In this exhibition, curator Michiel Teeuw has invited five artists to present artworks about the relationship between man and land. In some 15 works, created by Manja Kindt, Faisel Saro, Raily Yance, Marit Westerhuis and Samuel Sarmiento, different positions are explored. Thus, the artists use different narrative forms and media, from installations and paintings to maps and diagrams.

The artists, living in the Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Dutch Kingdom, take us to several landscapes: from Limburg to Friesland and from Suriname’s north coast to the Amazon River.

Manja Kindt

Manja Kindt uses multimedia, mixed-media and makes spatial work. All these disciplines come together to form an installation, both outdoors and indoors. Her work is modest in nature. Materials are often taken from nature to become part of artworks. Walking, mostly along the northern coast, always observing, the soil forms a kind of treasure trove for her. Literally the breeding ground for her work.

Faisel Saro

One of the people who made the transition from Suriname to the Netherlands in 1975 in the wave of immigration is Faisel Saro. He is of Surinamese descent, born in Willemstad, Curaçao, and raised with his grandparents in Paramaribo. His grandfather was a shaman. Following his example, he also strives to bring people into balance. His artistic research is in a very specific area: his own body. A severe traffic accident and a chronic illness have helped determine this way of working. His body is his artistic compass. From damage, inflammation and healing processes in his body, he extracts meaning.

Raily Yance

Raily Yance was born in the state of Venezuela called Zulia. The work Entropías de los cotidianos stems from Yance’s experiences as a migrant in Curaçao, in which he searches for similarities within cultural diversity and difference. The emphasis here is on scenes and objects from the everyday, deployed to counter feelings of alienation. Yance’s creative process begins with observing, studying and practicing everyday actions. From there, sketches and notes follow, resulting in compositions in which the relationship between objects and their meanings come into focus.

Marit Westerhuis

Marit Westerhuis, born in Winschoten and living in Amsterdam, creates kinetic installations that combine organic elements such as moss and water with industrial materials such as steel and PVC. Using robotics, her works mimic natural movements, creating immersive environments where nature and technology come together in unsettling ways. Westerhuis’ art explores the human drive for progress and its ecological consequences. By integrating mythology, history and contemporary issues, she invites reflection on the relationship between humans, technology and nature.

Samuel Sarmiento

Samuel Sarmiento is a visual artist living in Aruba. His artistic practice explores the storytelling potential of contemporary drawing art, normally attributed only to written or spoken narratives. In his visual storytelling, he also seeks to connect with Caribbean traditions and learning methods based on oral transmission. Beyond everyday stories, or myths, Samuel also seeks ways in which these stories can connect to major themes – through the use of metaphor or allegory, for example. His ceramic artworks are thus often symbolic of larger historical developments such as extractivism in different landscapes; or conversely, ideas about cultural identity and how to capture such a thing in works of art.