Eric Peter

Trans-

2012-01-15T16:47:00.000+01:00

The Castle that Wanted to be a Lake
mixed media (ice cubes, miniature trees)

NEST, The Hague, 13th of October

2011-10-21T15:48:00.025+02:00

The identity that is created in order to form a group of people, and the boundaries between different groups of people. In a performance with two models, I confronted the art public with a boundary that exists between them and the models, but might be liked to ignore. A confrontation with the 'other' of which we might feel a certain fear or maybe a reverence for its beauty.
Next to the performance there is a booklet containing a short novel and illustrations. The text is written as a realistic poetic account before it all happened and tells about the very same evening through the eyes of different fictional visitors of the exhibition. As if not on the evening itself in the performance, the short novel emphasizes the existence of an 'other' and group identity in a even more surreal way, or the combination of the two.

Press-release in Dutch: "De performances van Vanessa Beecroft waarin min of meer gelijk ogende figuren zich onder de toeschouwers begeven, roepen vragen op over groepen mensen en hun identiteit. De figuranten die Eric Peter op deze avond in de ruimte rond laat lopen maken enerzijds deel uit van het publiek, maar scheiden zich er anderzijds ook van af. Zo ontstaat een surreële ontmoeting met de 'ander'. We worden ons bewust van grenzen die er misschien wel zijn, maar die we graag negeren."

Five Blue, Twenty White (v1)
performance, short novel
performers: Marijke Everts and Shehera Grot

Booklet

2011-10-12T21:55:00.007+02:00

Short novel Five Blue, Twenty White, 2011
Twenty-four pages, seven illustrations, text in Dutch

Five Blue, Twenty White

2011-09-21T23:00:00.021+02:00

This is a project for a one-night-exhibition in art space NEST, The Hague. Together with fourteen other people's works, it will be the ending of a group exhibition called I Should Have Done That. This last night will feature a different set of people than the ones that have been exhibiting for the past month in the longer lasting exhibition. You can still visit the bigger exhibition now, which looks totally different than the one-night one.

Below are some sketches of what I myself plan to show that night. Sketches of a performance that goes together with a textual work. The latter will be printed as short novel giving a pre-conditioned image of the happenings of the evening. The title of the booklet is the same as that of the performance.

Please come the 13^th of october to NEST, for the One NEST Stand #8 named Epigonism Rules.

Five Blue, Twenty White (sketches)
performance, short novel

Performance Five Blue, Twenty White (v1) and short novel by same title, in NEST, The Hague, 13th of October

Scyphozoa sapiens

2011-06-08T11:35:00.010+02:00

Five. As their feet touch the water they keep their bodies still. The costume moves as fins on the current. A turn. Hands turn cold, clothing turns into skin.
Water people they have become for just a moment. Deep-sea food is what they eat. They dance to the rhythm of breathing and the sound of the depths. Suddenly it all ends.

Scyphozoa sapiens
video performance (with sound)

Watery try-out

2011-05-31T22:20:00.008+02:00

Three models this time. A try-out. Slightest movements, while standing in water. They wear the clothing.

Scyphozoa sapiens (v1)
living sculpture

Scheltema, Leiden, 10th of April

2011-04-18T22:10:00.015+02:00

Two weeks ago, there was the Utopia NU! exposition in Scheltema, Leiden, and then I was joining the exposition. Baking for hours and hours, the sun in my back. Lots of biscuits of different kinds were to be tasted.

Utopia (v4)
performance/installation

(OBY)

2011-04-08T18:15:00.006+02:00

Deep sea

2011-04-06T13:03:00.022+02:00

Jellyfish exist on this planet for years and years. Living silent lifes in the depths of oceans and seas. Water levels are rising and the human population is growing. We are forced to think within this new water habitat. What are we to adapt to a life as that of sea creatures?
The Bajau Laut people near Sulawesi build their houses on the seas already. Some live in houseboats, and hardly ever get on land. Because they are in the water so much, their eyes adjust to focus better under water. They hunt under the water surface and are able to stay at the depths for several minutes. And this is just one example of men adapting to the aquatic way of living. Perhaps the idea of humans living as marine mammals is not that far fetched after all.
Therefore, I am sewing jellyfish outfits.

Kunstlinie, Almere, 4th of February

2011-03-05T19:58:00.017+01:00

I performed my performance Utopia at a group exhibition in Almere 4th of February. Plate after plate, filled with delicious biscuits. During the evening I disappointed quite a few people — since I found a lot of leftover biscuits afterwards. Below are some pictures of Utopia (v3):

Utopia (v3)
performance/installation

Cakes and biscuits

2011-01-08T22:28:00.035+01:00

For weeks and weeks I have worked on a project around utopias, trying to disappoint people with their hopes and dreams. I have made big ice cubes to melt, tried photo installations, had post card plans, et cetera. Nothing seemed to really fit the idea I had exactly. Then, when I was making biscuits for Christmas, I realized what I had to do......
It was then the plan was born to bake beautiful biscuits, cakes, everything that looks delicious and sweet to eat. It will be presented nicely on silver plates with lots of flowers as decoration, and me baking the biscuits — since everyone knows home-made biscuits taste the best.
Then the moment of tasting. A sour disappointment! There is hardly any taste, just a dry biscuit. A false image of desires and high hopes of which thought this was a strong metaphor for what I have experienced myself when I tried to visit an utopia. No perfect place to be seen anywhere, and could not make myself believe anymore there was. A biscuit breaking down illusions and hopes to face realities. Bon apetit.

Utopia (v1)
performance/installation

Utopia (v3), in Kunstlinie, Almere, 4th of February
Utopia (v4), in Scheltema, Leiden, 10th of April

34500 DKK

2010-09-18T18:45:00.008+02:00

Ís

2010-09-13T13:49:00.012+02:00

KOLK Magazine

2010-07-15T13:27:00.021+02:00

The 1st of July, the very first issue of KOLK Magazine was published. This small art magazine from Germany publishes illustration, photography and (mostly German) prose from young people all over the world. It is an initiative by Jennifer Gampe and Thom Gold.
The first issue is printed on 88 pages and is all about 'handmade' art, so only analogue photography, drawings and handwritten stories were placed in the magazine this time.

the cover:

a page:

If you decide to buy it, then you should go the website of Hungrrr Verlag for more info. You can also take a look at the inside if you go there. The magazine costs only 15 euros, which I think is not a lot for a non-commercial magazine.
And besides my own work, they also published a few photographs by Ananda Serné, who's work I really like.

Spiritualization

2010-07-14T16:38:00.001+02:00

first pose:

second pose:

third pose:

fourth pose:

fifth pose

5 Poses: Haunted by the Animal
performance

Zusje

2010-06-04T16:36:00.005+02:00

Alter ego

2010-05-11T13:44:00.011+02:00

I have sewn this headless body, allowing me to stick my head in and merge the two bodies into one. One body, two souls. These souls both control the body at different moments.
The alter ego is not much more than the contradiction that exists within all people. I am myself, but I am not.

Alter ego (v1)
performance

—

2010-04-23T14:55:00.006+02:00

——— ——————— ———, ——— ——— ————— —————— ——— ——————. ——— ————— ——————, ——— ————— ——————. ——— —— ———— ———————, ——— ——— —— —— ———, ——— ———— —— —————— —— ———————. ——— —— ———? ———, ——— —— — —————.

Awaiting

2010-04-02T11:59:00.006+02:00

I am building and waiting, waiting for the perfect day to go down the sea and sail. My small raft is not completed yet, but almost finished. Just a few things to do.

Going down the sea finally, this trip forms a monument for the life at sea, an honour to buccaneers and other seamen — Nancy Hellevang in particular.
While watching a documentary about piracy in the Gulf of Aden, probalby the most dangerous part in the world, I felt deeply inspired by a 20-year-old girl that was being interviewed. Her name was Nancy Hellevang, a trainee sailor from Norway, fighting pirates at the oceans on a big cargo ship the Bow Cecil.
Ever since, I couldn't let loose the idea of sailing the oceans and encountering pirates. The sea seperates land and forms a border of nothing. Its unpredictableness and endless being attracts as well repels. This world of nothing, is where I'll set sail.

Russian-Finnish forest

2010-03-02T21:28:00.011+01:00

I was walking in a forest on the border of Russia and Finland together with an old friend. We stopped at a plain field and looked up to a big mountain with two smaller ones on each side. The air was thick and cold. While we were looking at the bigness, a pack of 900000 wolves appeared slowly from the misty mountain top. They were enourmous in size and ran down the hill at tremendous speed. It lasted about a minute or so, then they disappeared into air and snowflakes, just before they had reached the foot of the mountain. We decided to walk into the forest behind us.
I left the friend behind, and ran into three other friends after walking for half an hour on my own. We were all packed, ready to camp. Bears were living in the forest, so we were on or toes, a bit scared we might run into one. After a while, I saw a Finnish man, packed with amazingly much stuff. I asked him if he might had spotted a bear, and he just did.... That was why he and his travelling partner were walking away from the place they spotted the bear, and so did we!
As we were on our way, the bear had tracked us all down and stood on the top of a small hill only a few meters away from us. But when I watched closer, he appeared to be a Cossack in a bear suit – wearing a gigantic hat of bear fur. He walked down to us and started to ask us a few questions, as if he was a quiz master. We answered them all right and received 100 rubles, "Because we [Westerners] would need it", he said sarcastically.

900000 sneeuwwolven [900000 Snow Wolves]
42cm × 84,1cm
mixed media on paper

100 roebel [100 Rubles]
84,1cm × 38cm
pencil on paper

A few weeks ago

2010-02-26T18:13:00.011+01:00

29,7cm × 21cm
pencil on paper

29,7cm × 21cm
mixed media on paper

29,7cm × 21cm
pencil on paper

29,7cm × 21cm
pencil on paper

29,7cm × 21cm
mixed media on paper

5cm × 8cm
mixed media on paper

Textual

2010-02-01T00:27:00.009+01:00

A continuous flow of impulsive words and sentences, resulting in these three texts. I wrote and wrote without thinking of what I wrote down exactly and how; I just wrote.
It is odd to read some of the parts afterwards and realize it is me who wrote this all. I like to write.

(de appel)

(wit, wit is het)

(pas twee dagen)

Walking

2010-01-20T10:28:00.014+01:00

I was working on this project about routes and memories to them. With one, I had a very strong connection. An escape route.
Then, I made this installation about it, existing of this video, a text I have made when I was sixteen years old (4p, Toen [Then]), two drawings on black-and-white photos (51.772°, 4.743° and 51.797°, 4.741°) and a map of the route (Vluchtroute [Escape Route]). Maybe I will show the rest later, but the video, I can show it already. It is not as interesting as with the rest of the installation, so I should not post it actually, but I do it anyway.
It was odd how I could not reach the memories completely when I went there. There was nothing, it did not trigger anything, I could only remember me walking and biking endlessly, the man with the German shepherd dog in the forest and the hare on the red cabbage field. Amnesia. Only could I remember these characteristics, not an overall feeling, exact words or those kind of things. Even the reason for going there again became vague now.
Then, I found out the whole walking area I used to go to was flooded. While I could not reach the area in my mind, I could not reach it in real life now either.

Nu [Now]
video (no sound)

Dancing

2010-01-19T23:06:00.016+01:00

For a long time already, but awhile ago again, I felt this certain urge — to let my soul break out and move, instead of hiding movements and urges within its cover. Painted black as the soulless bodies I made drawings of before, I carried out this dance. Restless and black, I am.

Restless and Black
performance

Old photos

2010-01-08T17:13:00.008+01:00

I do not take photos that much anymore. The last time I made a lot of photos was during my trip to Finland this Summer, not as serious as I would have done before really — holiday pictures they were.
The photos below are not holiday pictures, but a selection of ones I took over a period of one and a half year maybe. This was the time I got really into photography but started to dislike it more and more, and quit, I guess.

Greenland series

2009-12-13T18:52:00.013+01:00

While I was reading a booklet about Inuit songs from Eastern Greenland, I felt a strong connection with some of them. I felt the urge to make drawings of those ones, which at first turned out to very much of a combination of me and the songs. Later on the drawing evolved more and more into making my own 'songs' represented visually. They turned out not to be about Greenland anymore in that sense, but about the things that made me feel connected to the songs.
I will post a selection of the drawings. They vary in size, small and big.

Een langzaam proces [A Slow Process]
21cm × 14,8cm
pencil on paper

14,8cm × 21cm
pencil on paper

Bevroren vleugels [Frozen Wings]
14,8cm × 21cm
pencil on paper

Zelfportret als M. [Self-Portrait as M.]
29,7cm × 21cm
pencil on paper

29,7cm × 21cm
pencil on paper

42cm × 29,7cm
pencil on paper

29,7cm × 42cm
pencil on paper

De ontmoeting [The Encounter]
42cm × 29,7cm
pencil on paper