'We look for the sun in the wrong places'  Its not about the destination but the road that takes you there. The Things We Are (Joost Stokhof) loves the road. Born in Amsterdam, but residing in Utrecht for several years because of his study at the School of Arts in Utrecht (HKU). In Utrecht Joost studied Illustration where he graduated with a BFA in 2008. Working and traveling together with his friends Yuri under the moniker of Super De Luxe or formerly Neil Armstrong, Joost finds himself in new surroundings at every turn. Hitchhiking every summer to unknown places to find inspiration along the way for a spontaneous exhibition, whether it is in Malmo, Hamburg or anywhere else. Recently two months were spend in Trondheim. In the north of Norway, for an artist residency. Filled with new bags of work Joost came back to the Netherlands. For his new exhibition Joost shows his Norwegian inspired work for the first time in the Netherlands. You've studied in Utrecht at the School of Visual Arts. What is the most important thing that you learned at your studies? I guess the best part of art school was the ability to try things, fuck up things and try other things again. It was four years of trial and error. That changes a bit when you're working in the real world, but I try to still fuck up some things every now and then. You are traveling a lot, and continue to make work while on the road, exhibiting in places like Malmo, Hamburg and others. Where does your urge to travel come from? I just love the feeling of being away. Discovering new places, new people, that is straight inspiration. Also I work really intuitively, most of the times I use shapes, words or forms that I have close to me. So every time I travel I change those direct influences and therefore my work changes too. How would you describe your own work? Like I said I really work from my intuition, so in that way it is really autobiographical. I love to put things that are on my mind or fascinate me on that moment directly in to my work. Most of the times I don't have a plan when I start, I just let it happen and a lot of the times it makes sense afterwards. You've just come back from working in Norway for a period of two months. How has being in Norway inspired your new work? I was asked to come over for an artist in residency. Basically I was free to do whatever I wanted, I had an apartment and a studio and they arranged a show for me. It was all pretty exciting. I'm really into the whole Scandinavian art movement nowadays so it was hugely inspiring to have lots of talented people around me. A lot of Norwegian artists i've met work somewhat like an illustrator but work more in a abstract way, using a lot of simple, almost naïve, shapes in their works. Being there challenged me to try and fit that into my own work, my line drawings next to those influences. which I think worked out really well. Your work seems to go very well next to poetry, music and other forms of art. What is it that your work makes so accessible to these art forms? I've always been searching for ways to combine my art with other art forms. I just like the idea of making my work more than just a drawing or a painting, When you add music or poetry to it, you can create a more complete atmosphere. I really would like to present people an experience, more than just an exhibition with art works. I think combining my work with other types of art is a good way to do so. Apart from that it is really inspiring to work with other artists, so I'm planning on doing more of those collaborations in the near future. More; www.thethingsweare.com Official opening: Friday 9th of April YOUR:OWN Gallery Oude Waal 35 19:00/22.00 |
Agenda: 26/03: Gijs Kast (NL) 09/04: The Things We Are (NL) 23/04: Lasse Netterstrom (DK) 06/05: Ed Templeton (USA) 21/05: Panik (UK) 04/06: Stefan Glerum (NL) 18/06: Lennard Schuurmans (NL) 02/07: Lil' Shy (FR) 16/07: Joe Holbrook (UK) (closing exhibition) Contact: YOUR:OWN Oude Waal 35 1011 CC Amsterdam info@your-own.nl Opening times: Monday - friday 10.00 -18.00 
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