I make sculptures, which I exhibit as independent works or as parts of installations. The installations are spaces that I manipulate by adding sub-sections or what you might call “sub-images”. Both objects and spaces are disrupted in their function and meaning. The subjects of the images or installations are clichés, generally taken from popular culture.
This may be popular culture in its present-day sense – a fast product like a souvenir – or in the more traditional sense – a crafted low product like a gaudily decorated ceramic dish.
In both cases I use the generally sexist and extremely role-confirming meanings and re-insert them into the political framework that has been left unspoken by collective agreement. The ‘fast’ culture is less fast than its image suggests. In reality it is conservative, if not regressive, which it successfully hides under the guise of fast (i.e. modern) techniques of production. On the other hand, ‘slow’ culture seems conservative, because the technology and production method remain the same for centuries; the process whereby such objects come into existence is therefore romanticised. The target groups for the two kinds of products tend to change or progress over time, because of the low consumption threshold.
In my works I exploit the dynamic (or anti-dynamic) way in which popular culture is cherished: I explore the need to conserve the past versus the need for a stylish example of Zeitgeist – for topicality, quick mental leaps).
In this sense my working method is like that of Ursachenforschung or root cause analysis: I examine the facts, that is, the ‘objective’ position, in the light of ‘subjective’ circumstances.
C.V. click here to read Bastienne Kramer’s curriculum vitae
Contact
+31 6 41399374
info at bastiennekramer.com
Credits
Website: Yvonne van Versendaal / Ehud Neuhaus
Texts: Ulrike Montmann / Alexandra Landre
Photography: Luuk Kramer, Jeroen Alberts, Rik Klein Gotink, Gert Jan van Rooij, Cary Markerink