HABITUS @37PK Haarlem

JUL 2021 / The exhibition HABITUS at 37PK in Haarlem was open for visitors from 6 June to 11 July 2021. In this solo exhibition I presented the new video installation Habitus alongside earlier works. On the mezzanine floor you could also have a look into the process of my current project ‘It doesn’t rustle’.

About Habitus
HABITUS is inspired by the crystal models of René Just Haüy from the collection of Teylers Museum. In 1801, the French mineralogist Haüy published his four-volume Traité de Minéralogie. Haüy had discovered that each mineral has a unique structure which could be used to identify the mineral. There was a extra fifth volume, the atlas, with nearly 600 drawings of the different crystal structures that Haüy had identified. Haüy had three-dimensional models made of pear wood of the crystal structures. Teylers Museum in Haarlem has a set in its collection, including more than 500 models.

I used the drawings from Haüy’s Atlas to reconstruct some crystal models. I included this endeavour into a daily routine: peeling potatoes. The integration of the specific reconstruction in this domestic act results into a surreal video triptych.

‘It doesn’t rustle’
On the mezzanine floor you could have a look into the process of my current project ‘It doesn’t rustle’. What started as an idea for a woven sculpture and the fascination for the repetitive act of weaving, has turned into an investigation of weaving materials, the meaning of weaving, and the functionality of a basket. Centre of this investigation is an object woven from willow rods that functions as a prototype for a basket with specific characteristics.

Publication
The exhibition came with a publication: Habitus – A manual .

Podcast
There is also a Habitus podcast available (Dutch only).

HABITUS is made possible by 37PK, Stichting Stokroos, Niemeijer Fonds, Mondriaan Fonds and the Haarlem municipality’s Cultuurstimuleringsfonds. Special thanks to Teylers Museum.

Photography by Gert Jan van Rooij.