SIGN Project Space, Groningen (NL), 25 April - 25 May 2025

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Shaking, Tumbling, and All the Little Mistakes We Make Along the Way was an exhibition in three acts featuring the work of nine visual artists: Kamilė Česnavičiūtė, Koen Kievits, George Kratochvil, Olivia Niuman, Simon Scharinger, Lambertine van Veldhuizen, Arjun Viir Bhandari, Sam Werkhoven, and Taco Yutong Huo.  ​

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We developed the three act structure to allow us to respond to some themes that unite us as visual artists – ideal viewing conditions, packing or storing, and communication (or lack thereof) – while also leaving room for us to maintain our individual voices.

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In the first act, we showed paintings and drawings in the most ideal way possible within the project space. In this act, I showed one large painting near the entrance, and five small paintings in the downstairs area.

 

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To create the second act, the work on display and their configuration was changed as we responded to the idea of cocooning, protecting, and preserving. For this act, I collaborated with Koen Kievits and Sam Werkhoven to build a storage rack to house work by all nine artists and a storage shelf to house work by the three of us. I also made an installation of a suitcase given to me by my father that had been given to him by his father. On the outside, the suitcase still bore shipping labels from the US to the Netherlands. On the inside, the suitcase contained folders and envelopes of text and collage fragments that I had been collecting as a part of my practice for years.   

 

 

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Finally, the exhibition ended with a short third act that highlighted the inevitable miscommunications, conflicts, and mistakes we make along the way. Each artist planned a different work, event or performance without sharing with the others. For this act, I collaborated with Sam Werkhoven, who created an installation of a dinner table with the remnants of one final meal we all shared together earlier that day, staged as a quotation of Da Vinci's Last Supper. I created one hundred "invitations" for the opening, thirteen of which invited guests to the dinner that had already taken place, and the rest of which shamed them for not having been there.  

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A publication was available to collect in sections throughout the course of the exhibition. Each artist prepared individual responses in print format to questions that corresponded to the conceptual focus of each act. The publication itself was designed to physically expand to accommodate the additions from Act II and Act III.

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The exhibition also included performances by Lily Dollner, Antrianna Moutoula, and Lisa Smithson.