Tailored to the Pace Gallery space, “EGO” is comprised of a network of threads that collectively rise, fall, expand, and contract, transforming between natural and non-natural states that recall synthetic structures as well as micro-organisms that make up all life.
On January 17, DRIFT will premiere its first solo exhibition in San Francisco, About Nature, Technology and Humankind. The artistsare addressing three core concepts of DRIFT – Nature, Technology, and Humankind, through the artworks such as Fragile Future and Flylight, wanting to reconnect people with Nature. Both installations are interpretations of this reconnection could look like, fusing technological and natural elements into one organic artwork.
The exhibition is taking place at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery space in St Joseph’s Arts Society and will run until 20 April 2020.
Photography Studio DRIFT
In 2018, Opera director Monique Wagemakers initiated the idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk (all embracing form of art) for the oldest opera still performed to this day: L’Orfeo (1607) by Claudio Monteverdi. And thus it came that contemporary artist Lonneke Gordijn (DRIFT) collaborated with the director Wagemakers and choreographer Nanine Linning on a new concept, in which they all had to re-think their usual way of creation.
For this production, artist Lonneke Gordijn (DRIFT) developed the overwhelming installation Ego: a moving hand-woven sculpture, of 9 x 4.5 x 4.5 meters, made of nylon thread that fills almost the entire stage image. Ego portrays the perspective of a man and shows how hope, truth and emotions are a direct result of the rigidity or the mobility of our world of thought. The sculpture shows, in interaction with singers and dancers, the inner world of Orpheus. Orpheus is stuck in his own rigid thinking about love and life. Only when his world completely collapses – due to the loss of his wife Euridice – does he rise above his own abilities. He has to fight against the laws of nature and this new goal in his life completely shifts his perspective and suddenly makes him a powerful figure. Ego is manipulated by engines, algorithms and specially developed software. During the performances, Ego is also conducted manually to respond to the changeability and subtleties of the live orchestra. The movements of and the projections on the sculpture represent Orpheus’ emotions, his fears and his power. Ego is therefore not a mere part of “the decor” but rather as a soloist on its own.
A block to represent the inner world and perspectives of a human being. That was the idea from artist Lonneke Gordijn for a new interpretation of L’Orfeo. Gordijn explains that “absence of fluidity is one of the most striking differences between man-made objects and natural ones.” While in the natural environment, objects can take any form without any limit, human creations get a more limited range of variation. Squares, the ultimate embodiment of mankind, with their rigid lines, angles and static state, are everywhere. Books, houses, bricks are exemplifications of humans’ need to control, calculate, divide the space they have at disposal. The outcomes of many months of research and experimentations led to the creation of EGO.
For this project around the baroque opera L’Orfeo (1607, Claudio Monteverdi) Lonneke Gordijn worked with Monique Wagemakers (director) and Nanine Linning (choreographer) on a new interpretation of the eponymous hero. The focus was put on Orfeo, who is stuck in a rigid perspective of love and life, but eventually manages to become a better version of himself when every pilar and ground around him collapses. He has to fight against the rules of nature and this new purpose to fight makes him stronger and causes his perspectives to change into completely new and unexpected ways. However, in the normality of life, he finds himself unable to use this strength he newly acquired and cannot step out of his original perspectives.
L’Orfeo (Monteverdi) is an opera production by de Nederlandse Reisopera (Dutch National Touring Opera) and a coproduction with Studio DRIFT and Opera2Day.
Concept: Monique Wagemakers, Lonneke Gordijn, Nanine Linning
Conductor: Hernán Schvartzman (Opera2Day)
Director: Monique Wagemakers
Choreography: Nanine Linning (Dance Company Nanine Linning)
Installation “Ego”: Lonneke Gordijn (Studio DRIFT)
Costumes: Marlou Breuls
Orchestra: La sfera Armoniosa
With dancers from Dance Company Nanine Linning.
Tour dates: Enschede (25 Jan, première),Leeuwarden (31 Jan), Maastricht (2 Feb), Utrecht (7 Feb), Amsterdam (9 + 11 Feb), Rotterdam (13 Feb), Zwolle (15 Feb), Arnhem (20 Feb), Den Haag (22 Feb).
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Photography: Marco Borggreve
Drift’s immersive installation Shylight was part of the Summit LA 2019 that happened in Downtown Los Angeles from the 8th until the 11th of November. This year’s theme of the Summit related to the different visions and understanding of the future which are expressed through talks, performances, as well as exhibitions.
Photography @shotbykyle, Studio Drift
During the Dutch Design Week 2019, Drift presented the latest addition to the ongoing Materialism series: the bag project. It was exhibited at the van Abbemuseum during the whole week (October 20-27).
Materialism- The bag project , visualizes the physical amount of plastic that exits each Albert Heijn supermarket on an average day in Eindhoven. One block is made of one recycled Albert Heijn shopping bag. Together the blocks form a sculpture every time a bag leaves the store. Video clips shot in front of Albert Heijn stores display the rhythmic movements of doors opening and closing to an abstraction that demonstrates our habit of laziness.
Studio Drift x van Abbemuseum
Performance video
Photography Lonneke Gordijn, Ralph Roelse, Ronals Smits
Only a month left to see Materialism at the Garage Museum in Moscow, as part of the ongoing exhibition The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030 – 2100 until the 1st of December 2019.
The exhibition explores a vision of the future in which ecological matters are at the center of the political questions.
Garage Museum, Moscow, until December 1, 2019
Photography Alexey Narodizkdiy
Nominated at the Dezeen Awards 2019, Studio Drift won the Designer of the Year award, as well as the Lighting Design of the Yearaward with their performative artwork Franchise Freedom.
Materialism is part of the exhibition ‘Trees of life – stories for a damaged planet’ read more>
DRIFT is part of an exhibition by Carpenters Workshop Gallery at UTA artist space
Open to the public on September 14, 2019, with work of Studio Drift. Read more >
In the Summer 2019 Impact Issue we talk about our beginnings with technology in our practice and where we think humankind’s relationship with it is headed.
For the newly renovated Huis ten Bosch Palace Studio Drift created a multidisciplinary work of art, consisting of real dandelions. The dandelions were picked by hand and their seeds were glued to LED lighting seed by seed. The main building of the palace is also sometimes used for public functions and entertaining, while the Hague wing contains guest quarters.
