Erik Hijweege
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Dutch, born 1963
Projects/Portfolios
Nishikigoi
Introduction
The Nishikigoi series is inspired by an old Chinese waterfall legend and Japanese printmakers like Hokusai and Hiroshige.
According to the legend a huge school of koi (Nishikigoi) were swimming upstream the Yellow River, gaining strength fighting the current. Reaching a waterfall, many of the koi turned around to go with the flow.
The remaining koi refused to give up. Leaping from the depths of the river they attempted to reach the top of the waterfall. The demons, mocking their efforts, heightened the waterfall out of malice. One koi finally reached the top. The gods recognized the koi for its perseverance and turned it into a dragon making the waterfall its playground.
The Nishikigoi series is hand printed as photogravure on Japanese rice paper.
Sublime Nature
Introduction
Sublime Nature
Around 10 years ago I saw my first rotating storm in the USA. The power of the elements really belittled me. Looking back it was my first experience with 'the sublime' in Nature.
'The sublime' is an aesthetic concept of the exalted, of beauty that is grand and dangerous. Through 18th and 19th century European intellectual tradition, 'the sublime' became intimately associated with nature.
Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich and Joseph Mallord William Turner heavily inspired me to photograph the power of mother nature and the insignificance of man.
I find 'the sublime' in nature not only in towering motherships over remote houses but also in strangling trees at the ancient Angkor Wat temples.
Erik Hijweege
Uncharted
Introduction
Uncharted
The adventure of discovering new territories, to walk through jungles and stumble upon moonlit waterfalls, to document the vista's 19th century explorers have seen is the essence of my Uncharted series.
In the 21st century there is not a lot of territory on earth to be discovered. To capture that feeling of the era of discoveries I use the 19th century technique of wet plate collodion. By using tintypes and copper Petzval lenses it feels as I am looking through Dr. Livingstone's eyes.
Erik Hijweege
Supercell
Endangered
Introduction
Endangered
The IUCN Red List detailing more that 12,000 threatened animal species, spurred Erik Hijweege to embark on his Endangered series. For this series the inspired artist employed an historic photographic technique invented in 1851 to photograph threatened species deep-frozen in ice. Using the wet plate collodion process, Hijweege has made unique glass prints of animals whose beauty fires the imagination but are threatened in their survival, like the Sumatran tiger, hawksbill turtle, polar bear, black rhinoceros and Komodo dragon.
By capturing these vulnerable species in ice and depicting them by means of a process that harks back to the beginnings of photography, Erik Hijweege creates confusion. His images set the viewer thinking. Are these animals encased in ice the last of their kind? Or have they been deep frozen in hope of better times and fresh scientific insights?
New Habitat
Introduction
New Habitat - Relocating Endangered species to safer grounds
Across the globe, more and more species are in peril. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, over 19,000 species are facing extinction. ?The ice-covered waters, savannahs and rainforests that they have called home for generations are steadily swallowed by human-dominated areas.
But throughout evolution, nature has shown its resilience. How will biodiversity respond to the extreme circumstances it is facing in the Anthropocene?
In an ultimate quest to secure their survival, I am relocating endangered animals to safer grounds. So the African Elephant settles in the Dolomites and the Rothschild's Giraffe found a new home in Iceland.
It will be exciting to see how these species defy evolution's centuries-spanning pace and quickly adapt to their new habitats.
Erik Hijweege
Amstel Gallery, , FL, United States
Contour gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Photogallery Sweden, Halmstad, Sweden
Artist Statement
Sublime Nature
Around 10 years ago I saw my first rotating storm in the USA. The power of the elements really belittled me. Looking back it was my first experience with 'the sublime' in Nature.
'The sublime' is an aesthetic concept of the exalted, of beauty that is grand and dangerous. Through 18th and 19th century European intellectual tradition, 'the sublime' became intimately associated with nature.
Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich and Joseph Mallord William Turner heavily inspired me to photograph the power of mother nature and the insignificance of man.
I find 'the sublime' in nature not only in towering motherships over small cities but also in strangling trees at the ancient Angkor Wat temples and thundering waterfalls.
Erik Hijweege
Erik Hijweege (1963) is fascinated with the overwhelming power of nature. He started chasing big weather and tornadoes in 2006. During his first years of stormchasing Hijweege chose an alter ego for this body of work in the making. Kevin Erskine a farmer from Valentine Nebraska was born. This resulted for Erskine (a.k.a Hijweege) in his first international solo show in New York and the Supercell book.
Sequel to Supercell is his Sublime nature project. In this series he combines the forces of nature with the insignificance of man. Towering motherships over small cities, strangling trees around ancient temples show the grandeur of nature and the vulnerability of mankind.
Following his 19th century inspired longing for remote places and distant shores he travels the world working on his long-term project Uncharted Territories. Capturing landscapes on tintype, he shows us the world seen through the eyes of explorers like Dr. David Livingstone.
The multiple threats of our natural surroundings triggered Hijweege to start a second line in his work focussing on endangered species. Based on the Red List of the IUCN he photographed 23 endangered animals preserved in ice. Being a fragile subject matter Hijweege used the 19th century wetplate collodion process to capture these frozen animals on ambrotype. His Endangered series was exhibited at the Dutch Natural History Museum in Rotterdam raising awareness for this important matter. The Endangered book was published in 2014.
Monographs
* Noir, Uitgeverij de Verbeelding, 2004
* Supercell, Hatje Cantz, 2011
* Holland, Uitgeverij de Kunst, 2012
* Endangered, Ella Editions, 2014
Solo exhibitions
May - June 2017 : Comenius Museum, Naarden, Holland
March - May 2016 : Eduard Planting Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
May - June 2015 Photo festival Naarden, Holland
December 2014 - March 2015 Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, Holland
April - May 2014 : Amstel Gallery at Intercontinental Hotel Amstel
December - February 2014 : Gallery Patries van Dorst, Wassenaar, Holland
August - September 2013 : Gallery for Classic Photography, Moscow, Russia
July - September 2013 : Broerenkerk, Zwolle, Holland
April - May 2013 : Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
November 2012: Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
March 2012: Milk Gallery, New York, USA
October 2011: Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
December 2009 - January 2010 : Parkhotel, Amsterdam, Holland
2009 : SNS Bank, Utrecht and Alkmaar, Holland
May - June 2005 : Naarder Fotofestival, Naarden, Holland
December 2004 : Museum Oude Kerk, Amsterdam Holland
May 2000 : Fotogram Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
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