Pakje Kunst® is an initiative in which local artists are brought to the attention of their own region in an accessible way. This gives the buyer access to the art offerings in the region. The artworks are the size of a pack of cigarettes and are pulled from old mechanical cigarette vending machines for only €4. Participating artists receive €3 of this. You can encounter any art form in a box. Graphic Design student Ilse Oudheusden participated in this project as one of the 50 Rotterdam based artists. In this interview she explains everything about the project, the philosophy behind her work and the importance of a local network.
Pakje Kunst is an initiative of Ro-Nalt Schrauwen, visual artist from Tilburg. In December 2016, the first three vending machines were put into operation in Tilburg. Meanwhile, this number has grown to 52 vending machines spread across 36 cities in the Netherlands and more than 1,500 artists are participating. Locations in Rotterdam can be found here.
How did your participation come about?
My first encounter with ‘Pakje Kunst’ was at Donner, I saw it and immediately bought a package. A few months later I saw a machine again at a theatre in Delft. That was the moment that I thought: I want to join this project. Afterwards I looked it up online and contacted Diana van Wijk, the area manager of Pakje Kunst Rotterdam. I visited her atelier, we talked and then she asked me to create a proposal for a design.
What I like about this project is the surprise effect. The randomness. It broadens your horizon, since you normally pick something that draws you, that fits your style. With Pakje Kunst you get to know other (local) artist that you wouldn’t normally.
What did you make?
At first I thought of working with ceramics, because that is something that I do a lot. But I also liked the idea of trying something new and experiment with glass for this project. And so I did. The work is called ‘powerful fragile’, because maybe being powerful means to be fragile. My work always has two counterparts. I have a fascination for polarities and their boundaries. In this project, the hard human made material meets the softness of nature.
The work exists out of glass plates with burned leaves between them. I got these plates at a second hand store, cut them in pieces and put the leaves I found in the forest in between two plates. Then they went into the glass oven (kiln) that goes really slowly up to 720 degrees celsius. The kiln has a really long cooling down process, to make sure the glass doesn’t break. I was not sure what would come out of the kiln, because I never tested it before. All the green of the leaves disappeared and only the leave structure remained. I did not have expectations, but was happily surprised. I really love being surprised as an artist by my own process. After the first tests I made the small ones that I used for the ‘pakjes kunst’. They turned out perfect. In the future, I’m going to test the boundaries of this technique and play with different temperatures. To surprise myself again and make it more exciting. Maybe I will combine it with another technique like ceramics. Or something completely different. I don’t know yet.
‘Powerful fragile’, is about ‘maybe being powerful means to be fragile’. My work always has two counterparts. In this project I brought together the hardness of human made glass and the softness of nature. I always draw a lot of inspiration from nature, so this project fits my style as an artist perfectly. Nature is something people often try to control, but we can never really.
Did you feel restricted because of the size ?
No, normally I work big so I really liked to have this framework and work small and structured. Creating something that is small yet powerful was really nice. It doesn’t always have to be big to make an impact.
What did this project bring you? How did people receive your work?
A lot of people didn’t really understand my work at first. I had to explain it. But I don’t mind, I like that people are surprised and do not get immediately how I made this work. To spark a sense of wonder.
Also, It helped me create more connections with local artists. Because of the 5th year anniversary of Pakje Kunst Rotterdam, they organized an exposition in which 50 local artists presented their Pakje Kunst work together with one big work. All the work was for sale as well. Getting to know all these artist was really valuable, I created a big network of Rotterdam based artist in one day!
Where can we find it?
At Donner, Villa Zebra and Atelier van Wijk. My goal is to also bring a machine to WdKA, with work from students! That would be super cool. If you’re reading this and are interested to join this project, please send an email to i.a.oudheusden@hr.nl.
To see more pictures of this and other projects, check Ilse's website or Instagram page.
