Fellows of the NIAS Artist-in-Residency

The role of cleaning in the visual arts 

Poet Maria Barnas will be the artist-in-residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Amsterdam. During her stay, she will research the biography of artist Jo Baer (1929), an American artist who also lived and worked in Amsterdam from the 1980s onward.

Barnas explores how oral history can be used to record art history. Can you also base art history on memories, stories and perhaps even gossip?  

The work of artist Jo Baer

Central to the research is the work of American artist Jo Baer (b. 1929). Barnas explains, “Jo had cleaners all her life. These were mostly young female artists. Sometimes these women were allowed to help her paint.”

“I want to try to trace all these cleaners and talk to them about what they remember from their encounters with Jo. In doing so, I also want to discuss their own work and ask questions about what it is to make art, what it is to leave traces behind; but also about what it is to clean, erase and be erased themselves.”

Visual artist Inge Meijer will be the new Artist-in-Residence Fellow at NIAS. During her fellowship, Meijer will research the role of plants in art exhibitions up to the 1990s, and the relationship between art and plants. 

Houseplants in museum

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and other museums once displayed houseplants as part of their exhibitions, a practice that has since been abandoned. As such plant displays have been largely ignored by art historians and critics, Meijer published The Plant Collection (2019), a book about her research into the plants of the Stedelijk Museum. As an artist-in-residence fellow at the NIAS, Meijer will extend her studies to include the MoMA, where plants were displayed in exhibition spaces from 1937 to 1997. 

The underlying question that she addresses is what this exhibition history can tell us about the relationship between art and plants, and the division between culture and nature. Do we experience a Rothko differently if there is a houseplant alongside it? What is the value attributed to houseplants compared to works of art? As a visual artist who was raised in part in the countryside, Meijer is interested in the relationship between art and nature. In a previous work, Car Garden, she explored her own car as a mobile botanical garden, and in the installation Wrapped Trees she reflects on the practice during project development of wrapping trees to prevent birds from nesting in them, which would delay the issuing of felling permits and, consequently, the start of the building project itself. 

Inge Meijer is the NIAS Artist-in-Residence Fellow from 1 February to 1 July 2023 and will work on a book and an interdisciplinary symposium during her residency. 

About Inge Meijer

Inge Meijer (https://ingemeijer.nl/) (1986) is a visual artist whose work examines the uneasy relationship between humans and their environment. She graduated from ArtEZ Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Arnhem and has been artist-in-residence in Colombia, Korea, Germany and at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Last year, the AKINCI Gallery in Amsterdam and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne hosted her solo exhibition Nothing is Something to be Seen. Her work is currently being exhibited at museums in Schiedam, Dordrecht and IJsselstein and at Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven in Germany, as part of the Ostfriesland Biennale. 

Composer, poet and researcher Micha Hamel will be the new Artist-in-Residence Fellow at NIAS. During his fellowship, Hamel will work on his ‘Listening Atlas’, a synthesis of his research on listening. 

Listening to music as a positive influence

Can we train our ears and learn to listen better? And how can we use our music-listening skills to become better at listening to others? These are some of the questions that composer, poet and researcher Micha Hamel will seek answers to as a NIAS Artist-in-Residence Fellow from 1 February to 1 July 2022. 

Hamel’s challenge is to find plausible evidence that ‘listening to music’ has a favourable influence on ‘social listening’. ‘If I were to claim that listening to music makes you a better person, that would mean that musicians are better people than non-musicians – and that simply isn’t true. It’s important to study this because listening involves a daily tangle of reflexes, intentions and considerations for every person, stemming from their upbringing, behaviour and cultural context. It’s not easy to be good at it.’ 

For the past three and a half years, Hamel has held a professorship at Codarts University for the Arts, where he explores classical music-listening cultures from a philosophical, empirical and artistic perspective. He has, for example, examined how gamification can make listening more beneficial for audiences and help to integrate classical music into society. 

During his fellowship at NIAS, Hamel plans to collect data on social listening by engaging in dialogue with academics working in different disciplines. He will elaborate on his findings in a book that currently bears the working title Luisteratlas (Listening Atlas), to be published by Querido in 2022. 

About Micha Hamel

Micha Hamel (1970) is a composer, poet and researcher. His concert music has been performed by virtually all the important Dutch orchestras and ensembles. He has also composed music for dance and theatre, for example for the Dutch National Ballet and theatre companies Het Nationale Toneel and Orkater. He has published five collections of original poetry, the fourth of which received the Jan Campert Prize for poetry. Hamel has worked with animation artist Demian Albers of Studio Apvis in Breda on ‘poetic experiences’ for virtual reality installations. 

In 2008, the Dutch Touring Opera took his tragic operetta Snow White on a hugely successful tour of the Netherlands. In June of 2012, Hamel was appointed ‘Composer in Focus’ for the Holland Festival and composed two large-scale works for the occasion: Requiem for our ideal of civilisation, and an interdisciplinary performance inspired by George Hendrik Breitner’s painting ‘Girl in a Red Kimono’. Following his full-length melodrama A Pure Formality (Orkater, 2014), he achieved another milestone with his polystylistic opera Caruso a Cuba (Dutch National Opera, 2019). 

 During his residency at NIAS, visual artist Oscar Santillán carried out a research project on biological computers. 

In the 1960s, when computers were still in their infancy, scientists experimented with biological computers, i.e. systems made up of living organisms that process information, learn and adapt. 

For example, they tried using water fleas, pieces of iron and magnetism to construct a biological information-processing machine in a pond. The experiment failed but it inspired artist Oscar Santillán to undertake an art project at NIAS on technology, ecology, AI and cybernetics. Santillán is particularly interested in the similarities between biological computers and ideas drawn from indigenous Andean cultures about ecosystems (such as ponds and lakes) as living organisms with a form of consciousness. 

Watch a video of Santillán’s work ‘Two Tears Used as a Telescope’. Oscar Santillán (1980) was born in Ecuador, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in design. He received his master’s in fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in the USA. He works at the interface of art, science, science fiction, lost knowledge and alternative perspectives. For example, he created the installation ‘Chewing Gum Codex’ using Neil Armstrong’s DNA, extracted from chewing gum that the former astronaut spit out during a scientific expedition to the Amazon in the 1970s. An Ecuadorian member of the expedition retrieved the gum and kept it for decades, until Santillán created an artwork with it about humans, plants and space travel. 

About Santillán's work 

Santillán’s work has been exhibited at the Voorlinden Museum in Wassenaar, the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, and the LACMA in Los Angeles. He has been an artist-in-residence fellow at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Jan van Eyck Academy, the Delfina Foundation and Leiden Astronomical Observatory. Santillán recently initiated ‘órbitat’, a platform for collaboration between science, art and cosmology in Latin America. He lives and works in The Hague. 

During their time at NIAS, Robert Glas conducted research on criminal law in the age of big data, while Joscha Steffens took a closer look at the world of gaming and religion. 

Interaction between law and technologies

In his practice, visual artist Robert Glas (1986) explores the interaction between the law and new technologies employed to enforce the law. During his fellowship at NIAS, he focused on the growing conflict between predicting criminal behaviour and attributing guilt. Statistical models and risk assessment tools are improving our ability to predict where, how and by whom a crime might be perpetrated. What consequences will this have on opinions about individual responsibility and the attribution of guilt? Glas worked with judicial and data researchers on a film scenario and a public lecture examining this topic. 

About Robert Glas 

Robert Glas received his bachelor’s in photography from the HKU University of the Arts and his master’s from the St. Joost School of Art & Design. He creates photographic installations and produces short films, including an independent photographic overview of all the immigration detention centres in the Netherlands. He also created an exhibition about the introduction of compulsory identification in the Netherlands. His works have been exhibited at the Van Abbe Museum, Foam Amsterdam, Kunsthal Rotterdam and the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam. In 2017, he was awarded the Stipend for Emerging Artists. Glas lives and works in Rotterdam. 

War games and aesthetically staged violence

Photographer Joscha Steffens (1981) focuses on electronic war games and the aesthetic of staged violence in contemporary society. Previously, he created an award-winning series of photographs about the professional gamers’ scene, entitled ‘Teen Spirit Island’. As an Artist-in-Residence Fellow, Steffens extended his investigation into the identity and attitudes of gamers. In particular, he investigated the emergence of religious communities in the gaming scene, and the religious identities and experiences of a new generation of gaming Christians. 

About Joscha Steffens 

Joscha Steffens studied religion, new media art and photography at institutes in Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Arles. He was awarded post-graduate degrees from the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig and the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne. His work has been exhibited at Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography in Amsterdam, DZ Bank Kunstsammlung in Frankfurt am Main, the Festival für Fotografie in Leipzig, and the Bangkok Art Biennale. In 2016 and 2017, he was the Resident Artist at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. 

Eating habits

During their residency at NIAS, Russian-Dutch artist masharu explored an extraordinary food habit: the eating of soil, chalk and clay. 

‘In the Western world, eating soil is considered dirty and unhealthy. It’s even regarded as a psychological disorder,’ says masharu. ‘But it’s part of the culture in some countries. Animals are also known to eat clay. Why is something that is seen as “normal” in one culture considered a disorder in another?’ 

Taste the earth

That was the question that masharu investigated. ‘Some scientists who study geophagy, the tradition of eating soil, have never tasted soil themselves.’ masharu invited scientists and other interested parties to join them in soil-tasting events featuring a large collection of edible soil and clay samples from around the world. 

About Masha Ru 

Artist masharu (1984) studied cybernetics in Moscow, photography in Amsterdam and obtained their PhD in mathematics for their research on electron microscopy at Eindhoven University of Technology. They create installations, performances and documentaries at the interface of art, technology and anthropology. masharu has received grants from the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, the Mondriaan Fund and the Creative Industries Fund. In addition to their project on edible soil, masharu is working with a Mayan community on a project about the art, science and spirituality of the Mayan calendar, and on a documentary about a patriotic military youth club in Moscow. 

The self-experiment

During her NIAS residency, the Colombian artist Ana María Gómez López focused on a nearly forgotten scientific practice: self-experimentation. 

Inserting a begonia seed into your own tear duct to see whether it will germinate; replacing a section of blood vessel with syringes and disposable tubing to try and construct an artificial circulatory system; attempting to bury a vital part of your body in an environment outside the body: these are some of the experiments conducted by Ana María Gómez López in her quest to examine the boundaries between her own body and the world outside it. 

‘Experimenting on your own body has fallen by the wayside in science,’ says Gómez López. ‘By letting that happen, we’ve thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Important discoveries would never have seen the light of day if scientists and doctors hadn’t tested their ideas on themselves first. Moreover, at a time when the boundaries between biology and technology are becoming increasingly blurred, it’s important to experience what an intervention does with your body.’ 

During her time at NIAS, Gómez López investigated self-experimentation as link between medical research practices and artistic production. In addition, she brought together academics and artists from different disciplines in an open forum to arrive at a publication on self-experimentation and embodied research. 

About Ana María Gómez López

Ana María Gómez López (1981) is an artist and independent researcher. In her projects, she explores the shifting boundaries between humans and their natural environments by making use of specimens, samples, prosthetic implants, media and sound recordings. Gómez López’s work has been exhibited recently at the FMAC in Geneva and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. Following her career as a forensic anthropologist, she studied art at Yale University School of Art. She has held fellowships at the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden and the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin. She was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (2017-2018). Her residency at NIAS began in February 2019. 

Supernormal stimuli

During his time at NIAS, media artist Arnold Hoogerwerf examined supernormal stimuli and the biological origins of artistic behaviour. In his project, he sought similarities between humans and gulls.

Gull chicks

In the 1940s, behavioural biologist, illustrator and Nobel laureate Niko Tinbergen discovered that Herring gull chicks displayed a stronger response to a white stick with a red patch on it than to the actual red spot on their parents' beaks. He referred to this as a ‘supernormal stimulus’, i.e. an artificial stimulus that causes a stronger instinctive response than normal, natural stimuli. Arnold Hoogerwerf wants to examine whether the supernormal stimulus can help explain the behaviour of modern humans. How do we respond instinctively to red lipstick, teddy bears and junk food? Does a Picasso play the same role for humans as a white stick with a red patch for Herring gulls? The latter question, about the role of the supernormal stimulus in making and consuming art, was a particular topic of interest for Hoogerwerf during his residency. He joined with renowned academics and artists to seek answers to this question, resulting in a published collection of essays. 

About Arnold Hoogerwerf 

Arnold Hoogerwerf (1975) creates audiovisual installations and composes music for theatre and film. He also initiates interdisciplinary projects at the interface between the arts and the sciences. In 2012, he created ‘De Meeuwen van Tinbergen’, a successful play, exhibition and lecture series about the life and legacy of Niko Tinbergen that drew audiences and visitors at the Oerol Festival, various universities and the Boerhaave Museum. Hoogerwerf studied at the Royal Academy of Art and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and teaches at the HKU University of the Arts in Utrecht. 

Identities that are not based on nationality 

During her residency at NIAS, artist Urok Shirhan worked on her project ‘Empty Orchestra – Xenophones’, which deals with estrangement, identity, language and sound. Shirhan examined how identities that are not based on nationality might offer a counterbalance to problems associated with nationalism and borders. 

Her own life offers a point of reference: born in Iraq in 1984, she moved to the Netherlands when she was nine. She studied fine arts at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and obtained a master’s degree from Goldsmiths University in London. She was also a researcher-in-residence at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Her work includes ‘Watani Al Akbar’ (2015), her reinterpretation of a Pan-Arabic anthem sung by famous Arab vocalists in a 1960s operetta. In this piece, Shirhan replaced their voices with her own. In 2014, she worked with Syrian children in Jordan who talked about their wartime experiences. 

In another work, ‘Communist Parents’, Shirhan examines the views of three individuals in their twenties on social engagement. She had them interview their parents in order to retrace the influence of the older generation’s political ideals on their children. 

How can humans become smaller?

During his residency at NIAS, artist Arne Hendriks (1971) worked on his project ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’, in which he explored whether (and how) we can downsize the human species. 

‘Human beings are getting taller all the time, and they even seem to be proud of it,’ says Hendriks. ‘But that increase in size – the Dutch have grown almost twenty centimetres in length since 1830 – also means that we’re putting considerable extra pressure on the ecosystem.’

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Being tall is burdensome for ourselves, for our health and for the planet. Hendriks therefore argues that we should reverse this trend. 

In his project ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’, which he embarked on in 2010, he combines research, radical ecology and imagination to examine whether it is possible to drastically shrink mankind. If human beings grew to only half a metre tall, we need only two to five per cent of the food, space and energy that we currently consume. Our brain would be the size of a walnut but it might perform faster; one chicken would feed a hundred people; and the entire world population would fit into the six largest cities on earth, allowing the rest of the planet to recover. But even less radical downsizing would already produce major scale economies. 

About Arne Hendriks 

Arne Hendriks is an artist and exhibition maker who specialises in speculative research, open design and education. He was involved in such projects as the ‘Instructables Restaurant’ (the world’s first open-source restaurant), ‘Hacking Ikea’, ‘The Repair Manifesto’ and ‘The Academy of Work’. His current projects include ‘Fatberg’ (an island of fat), in which he is collaborating with British designer Mike Thompson. Hendriks also teaches at Design Academy Eindhoven, De Academie van Bouwkunst and the Sandberg Instituut (both in Amsterdam), and at The Royal Academy of Art (The Hague). In 2016, Arne Hendriks spent six months as a member of the international and interdisciplinary NIAS community. 

Transience of collective and personal memories

Flemish photographer Jan Rosseel studied memory and the transience of collective and personal recollections during his stay at NIAS.

Historic events

He describes his work as visual storytelling: 'I use photography, archive materials, video and objects to construct a narrative that blends fact and fiction. I often start with an historical event and from there I explore in depth how we remember that event collectively, what has been forgotten and how reliable memory is.’ 

For example, in his project ‘Belgian Autumn. A Confabulated History’ he studied the so-called Gang of Nivelles, a group of criminals who carried out a series of violent robberies in the 1980s (and who were never apprehended). Rosseel’s father was one of their victims. Another project, ‘Litho Belgica’, is also derived from historical events. It is a visual interpretation of the novel War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans, based on the memoir of his grandfather, a soldier in the First World War. 

During his fellowship, Rosseel investigated the role of photography in constructing the past, for example by studying the terrorist attacks in Paris, the rise of IS and Pegida, the hijacking of a Dutch train by Moluccan activists, and the Armenian Genocide. 

Rosseel spent six months as a member of the NIAS international academic community. That community is made up of academics and writers active in a variety of disciplines whose daily interaction with one another leads to new (and sometimes unexpected) insights.  ‘I use the synergy between the arts and the sciences to continue posing new questions,’ says Rosseel. ‘Collaboration delivers kaleidoscopic insights.’