Invitation

We zijn op zoek naar mensen die een voorwerp uit hun eigen omgeving
willen uitlenen om te laten fotograferen door beeldend kunstenaar
Christian French. Hij onderzoekt de verhouding tussen mensen en hun
omgeving door stillevens te maken met voorwerpen die hij op locatie
tegenkomt. Hij is vooral op zoek naar voorwerpen waarmee u een
speciale band hebt of die te maken hebben met de plaatselijke
omgeving. Het kunnen simpele voorwerpen zijn die u dagelijks
gebruikt  of voorwerpen die een speciale betekenis hebben.
Alle voorwerpen worden zorgvuldig behandeld en geretourneerd in de
tweede week van mei. Als u mee wilt werken aan dit project kunt u
dagelijks tussen 5 en 6 langskomen bij het atelier op het terrein van
de voormalige zuivelfabriek de Venen (Kolderveen 28b, rechtdoor het
terrein op, de grote garagedeur aan de linkerkant) of een email
sturen naar xfrench@drizzle.com. Bellen kan ook: 0522-xxxxxx of
06-30xxxxxx. Christian kan het voorwerp ook zelf komen halen.
En u bent natuurlijk ook zeer welkom om een voorwerp mee te brengen
als u naar de open dag in de Kaashal komt op 26 april vanaf 14.00 uur.

And for those of you who find their Dutch a little bit rusty (courtesy of AltaVista's Babelfish):

We are in search of people who want an object from their own surroundings lend to let photograph by expressive artist Christian French. He examines the proportion between people and their surroundings by making stillevens with objects that he on location encounters. He is especially in search of objects with which you have a special link or that to do have with the local surroundings. Simple objects be which you daily use or, can objects which have a special meaning. All objects are carefully treated and returned in the Second yielded of May. If you want cooperate in this project are possible you daily between 5 and 6 the peats come by at the work shop in the field of the former dairy factory (Kolderveen 28b, rechtdoor the area in, the large garage door at the left-hand side) or an e-mail send to xfrench@drizzle.com. bels is possible also: 0522-xxxxxx or 06-30xxxxxxst Christian can come obtain the object also himself. And you are of course also very welcome an object bring with if you come to the open day in the cheese hall on 26 April as from 14.00.

Out standing in his field

Here is a picture of Jason starting to work out the circle he is going to create. There will be water, and there will be a cow, but I don't want to spoil it by giving too much away yet.

Moe

We got off to a good start today. Of course, we were late to visit the dairy farmer we met at the Church sale. He was very friendly, and had good English, because he's both a diary farmer and a breeder ( a "fokker") and part of what he does is travel North America to shop for bull sperm. One main cow that we have in the States is what is known as a Freisen-Holstein (if you're Dutch) or a Holstein-Freisen if you are not. Seems like we've been breeding them for stout chests or something like that, and he finds it's good to introduce some hale and hearty blood-lines back into the herd here. At least that's what I think he said.

Anyway, Jason does sculptural work with among other things an agricultural bent, and what he wants to work on here is a site-specific piece riffing off the landscape here (and the prevalent irrigation ditches) possibly involving a cow. He was very interested in having a chance to pick Arend's brain about the logistics of working with a cow in his proposed piece, and both of us were excited to have a chance to visit and see a real live dairy farm.

After coffee with Arend and his wife, we were much more knowledgeable about lots of things. Did you know Holland has as many people as Canada has cows, and Canada has as many cows as Holland has people? (Again, my Dutch, while improving, may require external verification for accuracy before press time). The farm, as are most in the Netherlands, is a family farm, started by his Grandfather, with 10 cows. His dad grew the operation to 50, and Arend, since 1974 has expanded to 150. What really got me was when he said he knew the name of not only every cow they had going, but of the mother and grandmother of each one. I guess it's a little like being the principal of a small high school for 30 years, but still it gave me a good feeling for them.

We got a full tour, and even got to meet one of his son-in-laws Gan, who showed us his pigeons, which he enters into timed competition. Each one that races has an RFID bracelet that allows for a computerized recording of the time of return. We even talked about putting GPS on pigeons, and it seems that while some fly straight home, some follow traffic patterns (including the roundabouts). Gan said those aren't the ones you want for your racing team, but I confess that I feel a bit of kinship with the periapatetic ones...

As we left, I asked Arend if he would loan me something for the still lifes I am working on. I asked specifically for one of his cattle show trophies and he gave me one from 1974 that he had won (and his father had won on a previous year).

When we got back I had a sandwich and spent the rest of the afternoon shooting. All in all it was a good day. Plus Mary arrived in the morning while we were at the farm. She doesn't eat meat and is way into birds and it's good to have her here.