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Some Name Some Noun Simply, photography by Obi Blanche.

Some Name Some Noun Simply

– curated by Borbála Soós

by Nicoline van Harskamp

Saturday, 2 December 2017

Some Name Some Noun Simply by Nicoline van Harskamp
with Serge Fouha, Kenneth Philip George and Monica Reyes
and the voice of Stephanie Pan

GET YOUR TICKET

*tickets are free but booking is required

4.00 doors open

4.30 – 5.00 first performance

5.30 – 6.00 second performance

7.00 – 7.30 third performance

*no admissions during performance times

the mine nays give never given self / been enter mine nays / way hollo volume needs keeps fill / these olds, these uncover what pre-person / with which one nay a-stay turn backs / with seven nays been given me / no possiblity at me be seven peal during that same time / spite this, nays mine destinations even

 

Some Name Some Noun Simply  is a performative work written and directed by Nicoline van Harskamp. It departs from the language spoken in her video PDGN (2016): a future link language built up from the ruins of today’s global English. She created the script by applying distorting factors to existing non-standard forms of English. These distorters include characteristics of English currently spoken between non-native speakers; rules of link languages created in fiction; and traits of Creole languages from the past and present.

At Tenderpixel, she presents this language for a live audience in a short play, set in a not too distant future. People still move around the planet but much less quickly and frequently. On the way, they use a link-language that cannot be taught but only practiced. Global travel and global trade have disappeared and global languages have changed.

Some Name Some Noun Simply’s three protagonists arrive from different parts of the world at a place they call the Onomasticon. It is a former site where names were inflicted on people, or taken away from people, such as an immigration office or city hall. To them, it is a memorial site for a redundant system where names were tools of surveillance, and a currency in data-mining industries. And although they are happy that the linguistic injury of naming has been put to an end, they each still have their sensitivities in relation to it. These come to light in their short encounter, which ends in an attempt to rename each other using nouns and verbs only.

The same piece will be staged three times with a short break in between during which the visitors are welcome to visit the display on the ground floor. Visitors may watch the performance as often as they like.

As a resource to the audience, a small publication with two different versions of the script is provided. One version in the language prior to distortion, taken from transcripts of actual spoken English; the other in fully distorted English, notated in International Phonetic Alphabeth.

This piece was developed by the artist in collaboration with Berlin partners Archive Kabinett, Let There Be and Scriptings, and premiered at Archive Kabinett in September 2017. Subsequent stagings took place at the Veem House for Performance in Amsterdam. It was made possible with a financial contribution by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.

Nicoline van Harskamp (born 1975, The Netherlands), lives and works in Amsterdam. She holds an MA from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK since 1999 and previous- ly a BA from Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag, NL since 1997. In 2009 she won the Prix de Rome. 

Solo presentations and live events include live event at Archive Cabinet/Scriptings/Lettherebe, Berlin, DE (2017); live event for Veem House for Performance, Amsterdam, NL (2017); Englishes, solo exhibition at BAK, Utrecht, NL (2016); solo show at C3A, Cordoba, SP (2016); A Romance in Five Acts and Twenty-One Englishes, solo exhibition KunstWerke, Berlin, DE (2015); live event at Extra City, Antwerpen, BE (2015); solo show at Onomatopee, Eindhoven NL (2015); solo exhibition at Kunstraum, London, UK (2014); Englishes, live event streamed online for BMW Tate Live Performance Room, London, UK (2013), solo show at New Art Space Amsterdam (NASA), Amsterdam, NL (2013); solo show at D+T Project Gallery, Brussels, BE (2013); solo exhibition GMK/Delve institute, Zagreb CR (2012); Any other Business, solo exhibition at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amserdam, NL (2012) and live event at Rhizome/New Museum, New York, US (2010). 

She participated in Biennials such as the OFF-Biennale. Budapest, HU (2017); Sydney, AU (2014), Eva International, Limerick, IE (2014); Moscow Biennale, RU (2013); Gothenburg, SE (2013); Shanghai, CN (2012); Manifesta 9, Genk, BE (2012) and Bucharest Biennale, RO (2010). 

Other selected recent group shows are Long Live the Old Flesh, Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, SP (2016); You Must Make Your Death Public, De Appel, Amsterdam, NL (2016); Hacking Habitat: Art of Control, Wolvenplein, Utrecht, NL (2016); Interval, Sound Actions, Tapies Foundation, Barcelona, ES (2013); The Translator’s Voice, Frac Lorraine, Metz, FR; Førde, NO and Museo Arte Contemporánea, Vigo, ES (2013); Coming to Terms, Jackman Humanities Institute, Toronto, CA (2013); 4 days, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK (2013); Anarchism without Adjectives, Extra City, Antwerp, BE (2012); Demonstrationen, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, DE (2012); Moving Forwards Counting Backwards, MUAC, Mexico City, MX (2012); Absolute Democracy, Rotor, Graz, AT (2012); I Proclaim, You Proclaim, We Proclaim, Stroom, The Hague, NL (2012); Rosella Biscotti and Nicoline van Harskamp, Hillary Crisp Gallery, London, UK (2011); Monumentalism, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL (2011); To the Arts, Citizens!, Serralves Museum, Porto, PT (2011); Publics and Counter-publics, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville, ES (2011) and On Morality, Witte de With, Rotterdam, NL (2011). 

We are grateful for the support of: