ESTHER VERHAMME

ABOUT
CV
CONTACT

About me




Bio

Esther Verhamme (1976) works and lives in Amsterdam. In 1998 Esther has received a bachelor degree in Communication and Media Studies and in 2010 a bachelor degree in design at the Rietveld Academy 2009; [Unstable Media & Interactive Design] As a media artist she works with multimedia creating interactive installations where the input of the viewer is essential to the realisation of her artwork.



Artist Statement

By creating work that evokes enactment I aim to make the participants aware of their behaviour and the behaviour of others in a setting that reflects a part of our society.

Without this enactment there is no interactivity and there is no work. The artwork is the complete system, not the product, not pre-designed objects, but that what happens when others get involved: the process. The work itself is a microenvironment where the actors interact in a process. The conditions in which this interaction takes place will determine the context of this process and are predesigned to create a framework. The use of narrative, images or objects are only there to create the conditions and act as a catalyst for the process to start.

I act as an observer of the experimental setups and leave the creation of the image to the participants. The use of new media and technology is not a significant part of the artwork, but it is integrated in the conditional design. As these media and technology are to my opinion not outside us, but a part of us.

As an artist I research what conditions are needed to enable the actions of the people perceiving the artwork, without them being suffocating to the event. With this I explore the borders of where control is needed and where control should not be part of the work. Like within every living organism, where the cells are limited in their actions. Limited by the physical functions and possibilities they have to interact with the environment they encounter.

Inspired by: Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Edward T. Hall, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Roy Ascott, Allan Kaprow, Francisco Varela.

Curriculum Vitae

Group exhibitions

2010

Sound of Shadow, Amsterdam May 2010 Machinegebouw and Basisburo | Work: Sound/silence/sound in RGB an installation with water light and sound.
Beehive project, every Monday Overtoom 301, be your own curator | Work: everything that fits in a box every other week something new.

2009

Delicatesse, September 2009, Sumatrastraat, opening gallery | Work: Geese duplicates and geese voice recorders.
Art in the Park, September 2009, Park Frankendael | Work: Organiser and artist of ‘ Confessions of a tree hugger’ an installation with voice recorders on trees to confess and eavesdrop.
Hacking the Event, June 2009, Ferdinand Bolstraat, opening of the Noord-Zuid lijn subway station | Work: Public Intervention by Turning the houses of the Ferdinand Bolstraat into Hotels to have a first row position when the drilling of the tunnel will start.
Incisive Boxstage May 2009, Binnengasthuis former anatomy lecture room | Work: Co-organizer and artist of ‘You’re not that big’ an installation where the viewer sees himself through a microscope.

2008

ASUAX (Amsterdam-Shanghai Unknown Artists exchange), China Exhibition, October 2008, Sporthal Oostenburg | Work: Blue screen installation, featuring in a Chinese movie.
Kunstvlaai, June 2008, kattenbak collectief | Work: Bluetooth movie ‘Gasfabriek’

2007

Kattenbak Camping, IJmuiden Cinema, August 2007 | Work: holiday slides projected on a tent.
Dating the Model June 2007, Basisburo | Work: Cardboard observation towers
Meneer de Wit group exhibition, Rietveld, Privacy workshop 2008 | Work: Save me / stop saving me an interactive installation on privacy, an animation on CCTV camera’s taking over the city.

Education

Bachelor Fine Art/Interaction design Rietveld Academy<
Bachelor Communication and Marketing studies
Arduino Workshop self organised with Sara Palomeque, Sander Stada and Luis Fernandez, February/March 2010
Processing by Dirk Oosterbosch, Rietveld Dogtime 2009
Information design by Erik Borra and Esther Weltevrede, Rietveld Dogtime, 2009
Eurolab Socratic discourse by Humberto Schwab Spain February, 2009
Montevideo/NIMK an introduction to building neural networks with analog electronics by Robert Davis and Usman Hague, April 2007

Weg


One of my graduation projects. It consists of a conditional design that I use to explore the effect of forced conditions on a group of people.
‘Weg’ explores the subconscious acceptance of being directed with a pre-designed projection acting as guidance on a 12 meter projection

Graduation project Rietveld Academy 2010

Homeostasis


‘Homeostasis’ explores the proxemics of actors through a (by themselves) generated soundscape. By changing distance towards the other, different situations occur.

Graduation project Rietveld Academy 2010

It's just an act


My contribution to the Asuax China group exhibition of the Kattenbak collective. Participants were given the opportunity to act in several Chinese movies using a bluescreen.

Exhibition Kattenbak Asuax | Amsterdam | 2008

Creatures


Creatures is an interactive installation created for a group exhibition in an old auditorium of the Binnengasthuis in Amsterdam. This space used to be the place where anatomic lessons were given. The building was once a hospital. In creatures you look through a microscope seeing yourself as a tiny creature like in a Petri dish.

Exhibition Incisive | Amsterdam | 2009

Voorgangers


Imagine being in a space where you can see what people were doing there before you. Voorgangers is a registration of the history of a space where previous visitors are moving like ghosts through the space.

Big thanks to Luis Fernandez for helping me programming

Memento


Memento is a derive through the city passing monuments of which we forgot why they are there. Tiles with a QR code printed on them in the style of the Delft blue can be scanned by mobile phone and reveils a quote of an eye witness who was there at the event the monument refers to. So we won't forget.

In collaboration with Quintus Masius | Rietveld 2008

Hacking the Event


NZ|Hotel is a public intervention refering to the building of a new metroline under the historical part of Amsterdam. The government send out a letter to all people living on the route saying that when the drilling starts they can go to a hotel. During the opening of the station at the Ferdinand Bol Straat we put up flags with the logo of NZ|hotel in the whole street.

i.c.w. Sara Palomeque, Lenka Dittrichova | Rietveld | 2009

Bacteria


An interactive projection of bacteria. When you pass the screen, wave at it or jump in front of it you push away the Bacteria like spreading them. This installation was part of a group exhibition called Incisive (see creatures)

Exhibition Incisive | Amsterdam | 2009

Where am I


Where am I is an interactive photo documentary where I ask people from all over the world to send me a picture of their view. By writing a short story about the place as if I am there I virtually travel the world. Because I wish I could travel all the time...

Confessions of a treehugger


Confession modern style. You listen to a confession of the one before you, forgives her or him and do your own confession.

Hit and Run expo 'Designed Nature' FrankendaelPark 2009

Ratrace


Ratrace is a public intervention where travellers who go through the new OV-chipcart gates receive a mini movie on their mobile phone with a horse race, dog race, guinee pig race etc... The opening of the gates gave me the association of the start of a race, like everyone is ready to start their day in the daily Ratrace.

2009

Save me / Stop saving me


An interactive installation in a closet of gallery 'Meneer de Wit' for a group exhibition about 'Privacy'. Save me / stop saving me is a comment on the immersiveness of cameras pointing at us daily, follow us and registrate us. They are there to protect us from terror, but are they really? The atmosphere in the room refers to the times of the Stasi (secret agence in Eastern Germany).

Meneer de Wit | 2008

Designed Nature


Once in a while I organise exhibitions in a park or in another not so obvious space, just because we can. Would you like to participate or be informed when the next one is planned? Please send me a an email.

Beehive


Every monday evening from 8 on there is an opening at the Overtoom301 by the Artist with Attitudes Beehive Project. In the Beehive 32 artists show their work in a 60 x 60 cm white cube. You are your own curator. Come and have a look!

Remote controlled Beehives | 2009

Delicatesse


Delicatessen is a new gallery in Amsterdam East, Sumatrastraat (finally one in the neighbourhood!) For the opening I created an interactive installation of three geese positioned as hunting trophees. The original sound of a choking goose (refering to the production of the delicatesse Foie Gras) was soon re-recorded by personal messages of the visitors.

Group Exhibit Delicatessen | 2009

Contact




T: +31(0)653668941

E: mail@estherverhamme.nl

Last project

Rietveld Graduation Show

7th of July - 11th of July
7th Opening 16.00 - 20.00
8th - 11th 11.00 - 20.00
11th 16.00 closing exhibition and graduation ceremony

Come and watch!
Fred Roeskestraat, Amsterdam