Fish in the bushes
Yesterday I saw a fish in the bushes, a pig’s head (or something similar) in a residential area, a little man of about 15 centimetres who, dressed in blue shirt and trousers, may have been keeping watch from a window sill for forty years, and I read a handwritten poem on a glass façade about ‘celebration’ and ‘life’, while the rest of the building has disappeared...
During my first week in an unfamiliar city, I was wandering. Actually, I’d rather call it getting lost, but with a smartphone in your pocket, that’s proving to be increasingly difficult. So, I started calling it wandering. During my walks I give free reign to my senses and become acquainted with the images, inhabitants, sounds and smells of Groningen. In my head I fill in the conversations people are having and fantasise about how they shape and organise their lives. But most of all, I am fascinated by traces. Traces of play, of creative expressions, traces of people who have tried to brighten up their lives or their surroundings, or to tell something to the other.
Meanwhile, I am also trying to get in touch with the residents of this beautiful city. I use notes to ask people about their hobbyist creations. Seeing it on the street is one thing, but what is created behind the front door, at the kitchen table, in the attic or in the shed?
All this will be the inspiration for my new works, on the road towards a project in which many things come together. MUDDY PINK DINOSAUR is an investigation into the role of play, creativity and art in everyday life.
Flemish artist Sarah Carlier has been residing in the Noorderlicht Studio in Groningen since 1st May to work on her new project, ‘MUDDY PINK DINOSAUR’. Click here for more information.
