Name, the branch of knowledge, subject
Karin Arink, artist and art educator – tutor and course director, Fine Art and Photography.
What inspires you?
In my visual work, I search for ways to make the experiences of my – our – presence visible. Though I love digital and social media, I notice I often escape thinking about the physical ways of being ‘me’. And also that social contact tends to take place through all these digital interfaces, while it can be so much nicer to look each other in the eye. My work is personal but as we are all social beings, thinking about the personal is always also about the social interactions that shape who we think we are. A good talk or meeting can be very inspiring to me, as well as seeing a strange dance movement, or sitting in the sun, lost in thought...
What defines you as a tutor? Your strongest points?
I focus on communication and on dialogue with my students. I see the development of a young artist/photographer as a very complex process of personal, artistic and social skill learning. In the teams of tutors, we complement each other with different roles – I often focus on thinking through critical making – finding your personal point of view, to develop your work from there.
I love to teach because every year my students surprise me with their ideas and questions: they make me question my assumptions.
What is your dream/goal as a tutor?
To have strong, critically aware young artists graduating from our academy, people who dare to question art and what art does in society – because I think art is always in relation to society, even when it rejects the mainstream. I love to teach because every year my students surprise me with their ideas and questions: they make me question my assumptions, so together we create a learning community.
Name one item on your bucket list.
Ha, this is a hard one: for some things, I am just too scared (bungee jumping, brrr) and many other things I have already done (living a year alone in Japan, for instance)… and making art was and remains something which I love and which both inspires me and pushes me to go over new boundaries every time.
Whom would you call true innovator?
In the arts, Marcel Duchamp certainly was a pioneer and a trickster figure all in one: these often go together... Also, Marina Abramović and Moniek Toebosch are big pioneering examples. There are so many artists who do this, Theaster Gates is a more recent example.
