Echo of a sinking landscape

Installation and text, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, 2022

Materials: peat and willow wood from a tree fallen down next to my house

Clop clop clop clop

Even though it is in the past, the sound of clogs is part of the identity of the Netherlands for many people. Willow trees were made into clogs to keep our feet dry just as we sculpted the land in ways that fitted to our needs.
Arguments of tradition are used to justify exploitation of landscape and  ecosystems. But is this artificial identity maintainable as the landscape continues to suffer? The willow trees are in pain and without those, what will keep our feet from getting wet.  By making my own clogs I hoped to understand my relationship with this soggy soil better.
‘Clop clop’ is a distant echo of the past and I wonder what the new sound of this sinking landscape will be.

2022 (this text is part of the installation)