It was a busy week once again, that is the way things go.

There was the presentation at the local MULO High school which was pretty interesting. It was for teenagers between 12 and 14 years old. One of the good thing about it is that I finally got the chance to get into one of these schools. They are all around and are basically rooms that are open so the wind can come through. All the kids wear uniforms. A basic blue shirt with some jeans. I guess it comes from the colonial system and is in lieu with some egalitarian thought.

Anyway, as with teenagers, some are more interested than others but they all seemed to have a good time with my presentation rather than having drawing lessons. The idea that a practice could take many forms (other than drawing and carving) was hopefully inspiring.

kids at Dantapu

Later that day I went to Dantapu where I did a little workshop with kids aged 3 to 14. I asked them to pick a leave, draw it large and look at the colors they saw. We then started coloring the drawing using more colors then just green. After that we made a cut out, colored the back and then I stitched the whole thing together to make a leaf sculpture. The whole thing took about an hour.

paper leafs sculpture Dantapu

After that I took the boat back to Moengo. It's trip of about an hour that takes you over the Cottica river. The sights are amazing. The water is so dark and in places still that it resembles a perfect mirror. At times the sensation you get is like flying because you can see the sky under the boat. Certainly a trip worth doing for anyone coming to Suriname.

Cottica River

Later that week there was another presentation at the Nola Hatterman Institute. Here I talked about my practice and its theoretical background. The good thing about doing these presentations is that people ask you questions you may or may not have thought about already. In this particular case I ended up discussing the process of making a sculpture this big in an open space that just makes anything look small. Thinking about this will most certainly influence my practice in the future.

picture by: Marieke Visser -
Charl Landvreugd speaking about his Atlantic Transformerz project and his residency in Moengo at Tembe Art Studio. Nola Hatterman Art Academy, Paramaribo, February 20

Concerning the sculpture I am making at the Tembe Art Studio; We found a good quality galvanized aluminum to work with. Obviously I cut myself trying to mold it into shape. This is the kind of mistake you only make once. Now the gloves don't come off even if you paid me. It is progressing quite well even though the rain stops the work. All of a sudden it isn't just cloudy but coming down relentlesly. I was hoping to get it finished before the coming up weekend. It will be the one year anniversary of the Tembe Art Studio. Now I just wait for the rain to stop,... Rain rain go away, come back another day.....

Legs of the sculpture
picture by: Wouter Klein Velderman

I'll keep you posted,.....