Author Archives: Zeefuik
The Stillest
A few notes while writing about Moments Contained, the sculpture of Thomas J. Price that will be installed at Rotterdam Centraal Station in June 2023.
1.
Her glance and the soft imprints of her unclenching fists make me think about stillness. Hers, ours. And, how powerful it is to make time for stillness in the midst of chaos. Or, as Toni Morrison taught us, as a response to it. Seeing her, this beautiful praise to pause, in a space that’s so synonymous to sound, busyness and haste, is poetic. It’s a beauty we often miss or rush past because have been made to believe that stillness is a waste of time rather than a part of it. Relearning to not just value our sounds and to also recognize ourselves when we’re not presented in a spectaclized forms, requires imagination. Often, we need something to build our imagination on so bless the hearts of artists who, when considering how to portray us, choose our Quiet. Decisions like this require vision and care. And, tenderness because even without her plint, it takes more than craft and an eye for carefully laid babyhairs to make a 4-metre-tall girl represent relatability. Especially if that relatability is a subtle, ever so clever method to not just critique but to refuse these eurocentric links between scale, materials, form and importance. With his most recent work Moments Contained, British sculptor Thomas J. Price offers us ourselves in one of my favourite forms of rest: unbotheredness.
2.
I’ve never let my abilities to function (dare I say ‘ride’) at dawn confuse me into thinking I’m a morning person. Yet, I’m excited about waking up before sunrise, making my way to Rotterdam Centraal Station, sitting on something that isn’t the floor and enjoy my tea as the sunrise finds its way to Moments Contained. At the risk of being misidentified as a Notep I can honestly say that yes, this excitement can absolutely be traced back to my decade-old fascination with sphinxes facing the sunrise. What delights me about Moments Contained are the reconsiderations she offers. Who deserves to not just have their representation but also their shadow claim a grander-than-human space in our public domains? Who deserves certain scales, certain materials? And, what happens when a 4-metres-tall statue of a Black person has a name that offers no introduction or disclaimer to this Blackness?
Sculptures and statues that are not just of but are also made by Black people, make me think in maps. They make me wonder what a mapping of Black presence in Western-Europe would look like if with ‘presence’ we mean ‘architecture’. Or ‘art in the public domain’.
I’m thankful for the (re)considerations Thomas J. Price’s work offers us and I’m excited to write about it for this wonderful, Rotterdam based art institution. More info soon.
The need for Afro-Dutch reviewers: PaarsPaars and upcoming event
On Friday November 11 Romana Vrede, Ira Kip and I launched PaarsPaars (PurplePurple), the space where Blackity Black thinkers reflect, share and cultivate conversations about Black art in the Netherlands. We started with an open letter to our kinfolk: A note about the need for Black reviewers. During the #BPTUnpacks event at Bijlmer Parktheater on Friday December 2, we’ll gather to discusssss. We’ll unpack a variety of Dutch theatre reviews and (re)imagine the kind of conversations the work of Afro-Dutch theatre makers, choreographers and playwrights truly deserves. Please note: The presentations and conversations during this event will be in Dutch.
#BPTUnpacks event info
Date and location: Friday December 2, Bijlmer Parktheater (Amsterdam).
Time: Doors open at 19.10h, we start at 19.30h sharp-sharp.
Presentations by: Ernestine Comvalius, Emilie van Heydoorn, Ira Kip, Richard Kofi and yours truly.
For our panel we’ll be joined by: José Montoya.
Tickets: Click this link to buy tickets for #BPTUnpacks on Friday December 2 .
Excerpts from our note:
‘From Eurocentric expectations and a less than minimal knowledge of Black arts to the use of terms like “gorilla” to describe Black performers… In its current form, the world of Dutch reviews has nothing to offer creators like us. It’s horrendous to witness how, time and time again, various art editors try to suffocate this work that is so important to us by squeezing it into the narrowest forms of whiteness. Horrendous and beyond boring. (…) We need reviews and reflections that inspire Afro-Dutch makers to further strengthen, deepen and broaden their artistic signatures. We long for art criticism and other forms of reflections that don’t just fit our imagination, involvement and expertise, but that also emerge from them. (…) Our imagination, our joy, our rest, our worries, our commitment, our knowledge, our curiosity, our history, our now, our future, our spectacles and our everydayness deserve more in depth conversations. Our future makers deserve an archive in which they see us and themselves reflected in pieces that are written by us. We can’t trust anybody else with this responsibility. To remix Toni Morrison: “We are our own best thing.”’
Instah fam, be sure to follow @paarsispaars for all your updates. The note will soon be translated in English. Click here for the full version (in Dutch).
Articles: Comvalius, Poitier and Washington
“What she also longs for: more ownership. More studying. More stories in which our pain doesn’t sound like an invitation to stand on the edge of our traumas, look deep into our wounds and there, with faces hanging over the Lake of Black Tears, fall in love with reflections of whiteness. More decolonial thinking Black playwrights, dramaturges, drama school teachers and critics.
In one of the letters published in her informal autobiography To Be Young, Gifted And Black, playwright Lorraine Hansberry writes: ‘I believe that we can impose beauty on our future.’ This imposing of beauty always reminds me of that which Chrisje Comvalius is the personification of and that what she urges those of us lucky enough to enjoy her view to always keep in mind: ‘Create and demand work that reflects our dignity.’”
Excerpt from my article about Afro-Dutch actress Chrisje Comvalius for Theaterkrant (Theatre newspaper). Published: June 27, 2022. This article is in Dutch.
“Two birds in one night…” It’s March 24 2002, the evening that the institution we know as the Oscars stretched their credibility to such a maximum that they hád to grant Denzel Washington an Oscar. Denzel, titan. The absolute best who shines in every film. So absolutely, he was great in his role as detective Alonzo Harris. Nevertheless, it is only in the context of white comfort and the imagination it hijacks, that we can explain why he didn’t win the Oscar for Best Male Actor for his roles as al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, or Rubin ‘The Hurricane’ Carter, but specifically for Training Day.
(…)
What remains is the cliché question: “Who, here in the Netherlands, is our Denzel Washington?” With the answers I’ve heard so far, I think we mean: “These are great actors who we’d love to see have careers similar to Denzel’s.” With our answers, we refer to those who would be capable. From Emmanuel Ohene Boafo, José Montoya, Werner Kolf and Adison dos Reis to Kenneth Herdigein, from Akwasi and Yannick Jozefzoon to Felix Burleson… we’ve got some excellent actors who, of this I’m 100% certain, could be the answer to the question. But, to be honest… with the current range of Dutch films and plays, how would we know?”
Excerpt from my article about Black, intergenerational mentorship among Afro-Dutch actors plus the love between Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington. I wrote this piece as part of the Poitier and Washington-festival organized by Eye cinema (Amsterdam). I wrote the Dutch one and Eye provided English translations. Published: August 12, 2022.
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