GIVING ART THE GREEN LIGHT
By Sunny Bleckinger
Just past 4 am. on the comer of Damrak and Prins Hendrikkade, all is quiet. Most of the city is asleep, but large projections of drawings, some abstract, others eerie, continue to fade in and out on a slowly sinking cement wall of the new NoordZuid metro line construction site by Centraal Station. This is the latest work by artist/curator Michie! Huijsman. For almost JO years, he has been projecting images all around the city, lighting up dark walls with the colourful imagination of collegue artists.
‘In the middle of a city, almost everything you see is designed,’ explains Huijsman. ‘But you never get to see the initial sketch. I wanted to give a few good artists the chance to show their drawings to a large audience in the street’ Currently, these drawings are being projected from two large projecters placed high up on the Victoria Hotel. One projector fades the drawings in and out, the other provides a wash of green light. ‘Green is alien, wild, unpredictable,’ says Huijsman. ‘[It’s] in contrast with the building project which is planned: controlled and domesticated.’
Fortunately for the artists, this supporting wall is sinking into the ground much more slowly than planned. ‘I guess the projection will be visible at least until the middle of October,’ says Huijsman, ‘but when the block will disappear completely, rm not sure. The builder is having a hard time with the thing.’
This is Huijsman’s first projection at a tourist hotspot And the heavy foot traffic from Centraal Station means it gets a lot of attention. While admiring the images, you can also watch young hipsters scratching their chins and nodding, girls with bulging shopping bags gazing at it with expressionless faces, or an older man pausing to take a good long look.
The best remark Huijsman has heard so far is, ‘It’s quite a shock. But a good one.’
Greenlight is displayed every night, all night, until the concrete block has sunk. See http://www.wally.nl for more info.
Sunny Bleckinger 