This Neck of the Woods Residency in Rotterdam:

This Neck of the Woods Residency in Rotterdam:

After a couple of weeks traveling around western Europe and couch surfing in various friends apartments, it was a relief to settle into a place for more than a few days and I was eager to get started on the preparations for the tour. Situated in a small cabin in Yvette Poorter’s backyard amongst the company of a few Canadian trees, I felt at home almost immediately. My hosts Yvette and Johannes set me up with a bicycle, cooking facilities, and plenty of extra blankets for the cooler spring nights. Their hospitality was extremely generous and I was impressed by how it didn’t seem crowded for a moment during the whole two-week stay.

The combination of the cool weather and being amongst some young Canadian trees successfully constructed a sort of sanctuary, making me feel like I was actually far off into the Canadian wilderness despite the fact that I was in the middle of a major European city. I also felt mildly mischievous and child-like being in the back yard, as if Yvette and Johannes were my parents and we got in a fight or disagreement so I decided to run away to the tree-house pledging never to return. I though a lot about Peter Pan, Narnia, and especially Calvin and Hobbs and became aware of the emphasis that the residency places on imagination and adventurous living in a resourceful sort of DIY fashion. During the residency I found myself particularly interested in the intersection between the business of an artistic career and this very genuine, subtle, and intimate scene that I was in. Through the This Neck of The Woods residency program, Yvette has constructed a very sacred mental space, allowing room to slow down for a short time, while focusing on the more raw, grass roots part of your work, which in many cases is buried beneath the distractions of the over-stimulating urban lifestyle that many artists feel dependant on to maintain a working relationship amongst peers.

The first week was spent mainly on organizing and collecting an itinerary for the upcoming tour as well as renovating the interior of the suitcase for more durability and making accessories such as custom fitting luggage straps and a clear raincoat carefully tailored to fit the suitcase. Yvette also contributed a first aid kit for the suitcase consisting of a small canvas container with needle and thread, and some casting bandages in case any repairs needed to be made on the spot. For Easter weekend Adair visited for a couple of days to spend some time at the residency and read through the books with me. It was great for Adair to meet Yvette and Johannes and to see the residency and experience it first hand. It was also the first time that the two of us got to spend some quality time together with the books since the project began which was very necessary and refreshing to exchange ideas and discuss the project thoroughly.

On Easter Sunday I took the bike out for a long ride to get a feel for Rotterdam. I rode down to the river past a large communication tower where there was a wooden escallator that led to an old underground tunnel that had been there since before the war. This escallator and tunnel were some of the only remaining structures that survived the intense bombing that devastated the city of Rotterdam during World War Two. Due to the long Easter holiday, it was extremely quiet and deserted on the industrial side of the river that consisted of the largest port in Western Europe. It was very eerie and beautiful to bike through the deserted dockyards with cranes like still fragile dinosaur bones and crates that were deserted by workers that had scurried away for the long weekend, scurrying away towards the sun, the beer and the barbecues. Amazing really how one man’s death has continued to delay such a powerful industry to over 8000 days collective vacation over the span of 2000 years. I also felt a very strong connection between Rotterdam and Halifax, both port cities that have been demolished by the activities and outcome of war, and rebuilt with strata of a more modern time period.

During the final week the days were spent exhibiting the suitcase around Rotterdam. The day before the last week started I was finally tempted to try a Turkish pizza at the corner in front of station centraal just a block away from the residency. I was sitting on a bench in front of the canal with pizza sauce dribbling down my chin as I looked up and noticed a familiar man glance away as he walked by. It was that moment that I realized that Leonard Cohen had just witnessed me at my best. Glamorously drooling and with my mouth stuffed with pizza dough, sauce and cheese, my social competence was about as impotent as it could be, so there went my chance to meet one of my favorite Canadian celebrities on a park bench on a beautiful sunny day in Rotterdam of all places. I decided then to start a ritual for may stay in Rotterdam to start a ritual every morning to sit on that bench and wait for Leonard Cohen to come by so I could show him the suitcase. I would usually just wait about twenty minutes or half an hour or so, but that was enough to ease into each day while remembering a lost chance that was actually quite beautiful and romantic in all of its fallibility. I usually averaged about 5-10 visitors a day in the public, and sometimes more when I would bring the suitcase into galleries and museums. Yvette and I went out together one day so that she could show mw a few spots and introduce the gallery to a few folks that she thought would enjoy it. We ended up with a few appointments, one with her friend Toine in his basement film and video exhibition space underneath a café who was particularly enthusiastic and generously thorough about his input. On one of the last nights, Yvette and Johannes hosted a barbecue in their back yard with a few friends where we had a sort of ‘open house’ showing of the suitcase inside the shed.

So Rotterdam was over, and I was off to Amsterdam before I knew it, well rested and equipped for many more adventures ahead to unfold. It had been fantastic to meet Yvette and discuss art with someone again who had an understanding of Canadian Art as well as its compatibility with the European landscape that is so different from our own.

A special thanks again to Yvette and Johannus. The ‘TNOTW’ residency definitely gets many stars!