New Statues of Liberty

September 30, 2023 to March 3, 2024

Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar is celebrating 450 years of Alkmaar Relief with new art. The museum commissioned three artists to create a work of art that gives a contemporary interpretation of the concept of freedom. The three new works invite visitors to enter into conversation with each other about what freedom means to them.

Freedom plays an important role in the history of Alkmaar. In the permanent presentation of Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, it is easy to see how the theme has been depicted in various ways throughout the centuries. At a time when various freedoms are under pressure, the museum has called on artists to expand the existing pictorial tradition.

The public opening of New Statues of Liberty is during
Museum Night Alkmaar, the night the museum opens its doors and offers a mix of music, art and performance art. Tickets can be purchased through museumnight-alkmaar.nl. 

Liberty, Unfettered Release | tapestry (mixed yarns)
Sina Dyks
Liberty,Unfettered Release depicts a double-sided sense of freedom.The artwork can be experienced from multiple perspectives. One side shows a lush, green environment in warm tones. The other side consists of a dreamy landscape in cool colors.A specially developed weaving technique creates a spatial effect in the fabric, literally surrounding the visitor with the artwork. During the exhibition, visitors can donate threads that symbolize freedom on a personal level. These will be spun into threads by the artist and incorporated into the artwork.

About Sina Dyks
Sina Dyks (NL, 1995) is a textile designer. She studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Her work consists of textile installations that are as ingenious as they are seductive and brimming with technical ingenuity. Using steam, she pulls out pieces of yarn in specific places in the fabric. This creates a layered and lively landscape, which you simply cannot stop looking at. With her collection Stimuli Wiring System - for which she herself wrote the weaving program and delved extensively into the psychological effects of colors - she wants to stimulate the viewer's brain.

The Protest Swimmers | film
History has many examples of individuals who have stood up for their own rights and freedom, as well as those of a particular group or even all of humanity.The Protest Swimmersis about doing an act for the common good. The film shows how two women make themselves heard in a way that suits them. With a dive into the canals of Alkmaar and a protest song, they inspire each other and others to be kinder to themselves and to the world around them.

About Gabriel Lester
Gabriel Lester (NL, 1972) is a visual artist and filmmaker. His work consists of installations, performances and film/video art. In his films and installations, he often seduces the viewer to reconsider the thin dividing line between appearance and reality. His style is cinematic, without always using film or video. The storyline is sometimes hidden, other times distinctly visible and with a powerful arc of tension. Lester sees art as brain gymnastics and aims to lift the spirit and teach people to be flexible.

Sparkling Desire | sculpture (blown glass, metal, rope)
Marinke van Zandwijk

The meaning of freedom is not the same for everyone. Everyone has their own ideas and dreams. Collecting these creates a range of meanings.Sparkling Desireis a freedom dream catcher. The artwork consists of hundreds of blown glass bubbles in different colors, shapes and sizes, to represent all those individual dreams pictorially. Visitors can write down their freedom dream and have it immortalized in the artwork. Gradually, the glass artwork fills with different ideas of freedom, like a true time capsule for future generations.

About Marinke van Zandwijk 
Marinke van Zandwijk (NL, 1987) is a visual artist and glassblower. She studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Since 2001 she has worked at Glasblazerij Leerdam, part of the Dutch Glass Museum. She presents her work in exhibitions at home and abroad and works on commission. 'I blow bubbles. Glass blown bubbles often play the leading role in my work. In search of transience and distortion, they find their meaning. Starting point is the statement of the philosopher and humanist Erasmus: 'Homo bulla est' (Man is a bubble)'.

New Statues of Liberty
Sina Dyks | Gabriel Lester | Marinke van Zandwijk
September 30, 2023 to March 3, 2024