Eveline Kolijn is a printmaker and installation artist. Her interest in natural history and concern for the environment were fostered by growing up in the Caribbean, where she experienced both the beauty and demise of coral reefs. Eveline received a MA in cultural anthropology from the Leiden University in the Netherlands in 1986 and a BFA from the Alberta College of Art+ Design in 2008 including the Governor General’s Award for academic achievement. She has participated in national and international exhibitions and residencies, public art projects and community engagement. She has been published in various scientific publications. She is an instructor at the Alberta University of the Arts School of Continuing Education. In 2018, she joined the Energy Futures Lab as a Fellow and in 2019, she received the AUArts Alumni Legacy award.
Projects:
1. The Ocean Inside (2017).Video installation. On a large translucent projection veil from polyester voile, measuring 4 meters wide and 2.45 m high, I have hand-printed a reflecting linocut pattern with mica, which depicts a network of plankton. Video projected on sheer fabric with a pattern of this quality acquires a unique integration of pattern and projection. The video is 15 minutes long. I have been filming video footage underwater in the sea (mostly in the Caribbean) and around coastal shores from 2012-2017. I have recorded waves of voices that speak 16 short statements in their native language. The following languages are recorded: Dutch, English, French, Greek, Japanese, Mandarin, Nahuatl, Papiamentoe, Polish, Russian, Shona, Spanish, Tagalog, Te Reo Mãori and Urdu.
2. Tidalectics Print Portfolio (2020). In 2019-2020, I conceived of an art-science portfolio, in which I invited ten international printmakers and matched them with marine biology researchers, to create a print based on the research from the biologist. The print portfolio follows both the historical tradition of depicting the natural history of the ocean and a contemporary focus on the environmental challenges the marine environment faces today.
3. Winterreise (full-length film in collaboration with Mountainview festival of Song and Chamber Music, 2022). I am very much interested to explore the Winterreise cycle, and to revisit and review 19th Century ideas on The Sublime. Are we, after a couple of decades, with cold and calculated neo-liberalist thinking ripe for a new sensory age of neo-Romanticism? Change is coming. We know it; the Pandemic and Climate Change are intimately connected, and the change is accelerating.
4. The Energy Futures Portfolio (2022). Forty-one Albertan printmakers and writers, a network of Alberta experts and influencers on Energy Systems and members of Alberta’s town and rural communities will be connected in this project to vision and visualize sustainable energy transition. The outcome will be twenty hand-made fine art prints, twenty texts (poem, short story, essay) and one short video, forming a tangible vision of Alberta’s Energy Future. The goal is for writers and artists to think about energy transition in Alberta. How do we envision the future? What actual options are already there? How should society adapt? Is this an opportunity for change regarding equity and reconciliation? What are the problems and challenges? What are the cultural changes? This can be imagined, but still based on reality.
