Photography: Narayana

What was heard in all speeches at the graduations I visited thus far — KABK, GRA and AHK — were some words on the cuts in fundings of arts and culture by the Dutch government. Some graduates whom I met were asked where they see themselves in five years time from now ? I have been looking forward to the opening of the graduation show of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. The amount of work you will see is great, worth multiple visits… untill sunday.

Ceramics: Joeny Veldhuijzen Van Santen is glad she was given the oppurtunity to spend three years on developing her art as an individual. envisioning the hidden and incorporating them into the surface of her work. Joeny doesn’t want to depend on fundings, having her roots in marketing and commercial business, her determination is to continue her work. Driven to be the entrepeneur after her graduation and five years from now, she sees herself working with multiple disicplines she already signs her work with, mostly commissioned by architects.

Outside on a sunny afternoon, at the GRA, I meet Eva Kenell. Because her installation in partly outside the building I couldn’t help noticing two ladies facing their reflection in the glass facade of the building and at the same time viewing a video on a screen. ‘Axis Mundi’, is about the different perspectives to everyday life… she speaks about trance and we get close to the subject of out-of-body-experience. Eva comes from Sweden and lives amongst squaters. “I like to travel light”, she says: “I came from Sweden with two backpacks and I wil leave to Zurich with similar bagage” — and of course a diploma from the Rietveld (Ed.). Eva has her way of grabbing the chances to get where she needs to be even five years from now.

Sophie Jung graduates with photography — she is family of the Jung, her grandfather his brother was close to the Jung we all know, and we both laugh. She doesn’t calculate nor does she depend on technique. her work is about “the pitfalls of accuracy in photography” she states in her handwriting upon my request… the first person I meet who writes in an angle of 90 degrees ! Her self-portrait is described as follows: “Me in my mother’s engangement dress at my grandfather’s piano in my father’s country house wearing my grandmother’s pearls and my godmother’s ring, two days before refusing my first proposal for marriage.”

We haven’t spoken about her Easyjet project yet where she tries to play with the photographic stigma of typology, the pure method in order to ‘find’, to visually uncover hidden truth. Rather we speak about ‘White Balance’ — the word itself makes me wonder wether white is off-balance ? (Ed.). “What if my red is what you’ld call violet, might then what you’ld call violet be my yellow ?” Her screensaver is something completely diffrent: 21 knitted rectangles that in their unity make up the complete binary code of the traditional Apple screensaver. 0 left stitch, 1 right stitch. A project between her and her grandmother. Sophie is going to live in Amsterdam and continue working as an artist. So that’s where we will see her work, soon and five years from now.

The fashion department shared the greenhouses on the waterfront for their graduation exhibition. A diverse group of five students graduated this year. Two womenswear collections — Jana Chocholackova, Elvira ‘t Hart — two menswear collections — Pablo Londono Sarria, Amos Tranque – and one collection blending both genders by Joshua Enker. The last was a blend of various contrasting materials: paper vs silver silk, hand embroidered raw silk vs denim… Joshua will definetely leave Amsterdam for what it’s worth. There is a different energy level in the area opposed to Paris or America, where a friend of his will be setting up a business with room for Joshua to participate.

Thanks to Sophie Jung and Joshua Enker for additional writings.