ARCHIVE
On this page you find a selection of older works and projects. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact mail@aircocaravan.com
GENESIS 1:1
Josilda de Conceição Gallery, solo show, installation view, 2017
GENESIS 1:1
This paper was made with an unusual material: not waste paper, rags or wood, but with pages from the Creation Narratives of the Torah, Bible, and Qur’an. Three exact equal parts were used, accurate to the tenth of a gram, from the Genesis sections of the three holy books. It’s interesting that these three world religions have so much in common while it evolved into huge differences, hatred and murder. This blended paper is a paradox, it still contains the original texts but was changed into unwritten pages. Clean slate, tabula rasa.
In total 7 sheets symbolize the 6 creation fases/days and the 7th day of rest. In the Bible the Genesis story starts with 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Hand made paper, 6.5x8inches (16x21,5cm), 2017
Maple frame 8x11inches (21x28cm), Mertens White, 99% art glass.
The World Problem & Other Inconveniences, group show, curated by Reinder ven der Woude, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, January 2020
Paper snippets of the Genesis chapters from the three holy books were shredded to a pulp and cooked to whiten it. Then the paper was made with a paper making mould, pressed, and dried.
THE SURVIVORS
A group show inspired by the drawings of a Syrian refugee, now living in Turkey in 2016, 5 years after the Arab Spring, the start of the civilian war on March 15, 2011.
12,000 LOST
In the five years of the Syrian war, approximately 12,000 children were killed. The light grey toys symbolize the loss of lives. The color also refers to the ruined buildings by the bombings... everything turns grey, in every sense of the word. The baby dolls show us the innocence of the children; the my little ponies speak for dreams and freedom, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck refer to the US, both the American Dream and their sometimes questionable efforts in the Middle East. The toys represent all the belongings refugees have to leave behind. There’s also a toy camera and a small boat. This installation tells the story of the Syrian children: war, deaths, refugees, and hope.
33 toys, labeled and numbered, alkyd paint, wire, 55x33”(140x85 cm), 2016
14,000 LOST…
On 8 December 2024, the Syrian Arab Republic under Bashar al-Assad collapsed amid major offensives by the Syrian opposition (led by Tahrir al-Sham and supported by other rebel groups, including the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army) as part of the Syrian civil war which began in 2011.
In the first five years of the Assad war, 12,000 children were killed, while in only one year during the genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel, more than 14,000 children were murdered.
In December 2024, approximately 200,000 Gazans lost their life after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The bloodthirst of Netanyahu is unparalleled. Arrest him. Lock him up. Free Palestine.
SLAUGHTERER OF DAMASCUS
250,000 people were killed in the Syrian war until 2016. This painting shows a propaganda image of the ‘Slaughterer of Damascus’ Bashar al-Assad, but the image is torn like a poster and will be torn more and more until it’s gone. In the lower right corner the drawings by Taim Safar, an eleven-year-old Syrian refugee and texts from the people for a free Syria. Those will eventually grow and take over. The pen is mightier than the sword.
In December 2024, the Assad regime collapsed.
in 13 years of war, 500,000 people were killed, and half of the population was displaced, millions of Syrians became refugees.
Oil on canvas, 8x6ft, (240x170cm), painted in China, 2016
250,000 DEATHS AND COUNTING
Bashar al-Assad is one of the worst dictators today. Large intimidating propaganda posters are all over the streets. He said he wanted to be remembered 10 years from now as the person who saved Syria (according to an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, in February 2016). In the background of the slightly changed official portrait, with an Alexander McQueen tie and the devil in his eyes, the victims of the sarin gas attacks in Ghouta, east of Damascus in 2013, are shown. 1.429 people were killed, including at least 426 children.
Oil on canvas, 8x6ft, (240x170cm), painted in China, 2016
CENSORED! The two large paintings were censored and taken out of the group show because the municipality of The Hague was afraid they would cause trouble and unrest on both sides, pro- and anti-Assad protesters. After intervention by a newspaper journalist, the paintings were put back in the exhibition and Syrian visitors loved it because of the Assad critique that was included in the art. April 15 - May 4, 2016, Atrium, City Hall The Hague. The Survivors was an exhibition project initiated by Bassem Alkhouri (DAI, 2005) around the drawings by Taim Safar, an eleven-year-old Syrian boy who lived in Turkey after he had to flee his country. Organized by The Hague Peace Projects.
100,000,000 DEATHS AND COUNTING
Art in Redlight, Amsterdam, 2014, installation view.
100,000,000 DEATHS AND COUNTING
This portrait is a combination, a blend, of 25 faces of the most deadly dictators. Together they are responsible for more than 100.000.000 deaths: Mao Zedong, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Leopold II, Hideki Tojo, Hirohito, Vladimir Lenin, Pol Pot, Yahya Khan, Chiang Kai-shek, Nicholas II, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Ismail Enver Pasha, Saddam Hussein, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, Ho Chi-minh, Kim Il-sung, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Kim Jong-il, Yakubu Gowon, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin Dada, Nicolae Ceausescu, Slobodan Milosevic and runner-up Bashar al-Assad. The portrait is inspired by Luc Tuymans' Der Diagnostische Blick IV (1992).
Should Winston Churchill be included? In 1943 during the Bengal famine, caused by the British, an estimated 800,000 to 3,8 million Bengalis perished.
Gobelin tapestry, 86x59" (220x150cm), 2014
In 2024, two new mass murderers can be added: Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who fled the country on December 8, 2024, with the blood of 500,000 victims on his hands, and Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu (Mileikowsky), who massacred 200,000 Gazans in just one year, starting October 7, 2023.
100,000,000 DEATHS AND COUNTING II
This small tapestry has the exact size of Tuymans' painting, that is in long-term loan in De Pont Museum.
Gobelin tapestry, 22x15" (57x38cm), ed. 4, 2014
DEADLIEST ENDANGERED SPECIES
Insect box, 24 portraits of the most deadly dictators plotted on skin, insect pins, labels, 20x16x2" (50x40x5,5cm), 2014
WAR RUGS
WAR RUG ALLAHU AKBAR & OMG
IJssel Biennial, Netherlands, 2017. War rugs were first woven when Russia occupied Afghanistan in the eighties, visualizing tanks, helicopters, hand grenades, kalashnikovs, etc. The distinctive characteristic of these rugs is their capacity to convey their makers' experiences and interpretations of the circumstances and politics of war and conflict in the region. Caravan's war rugs also expose the state of our society.
Wall tapestry, 100% cotton, 60x80inches (150x200cm), 2017
Loods 6, Amsterdam, group show 2019. After one complaint the management demanded to remove the Allahu Akbar tapestry. There was no dialogue or explanation possible. So another protest/warning tapestry was hung instead.
Wall tapestry, 100% cotton, 50x60inches/60x80 inches (130x150cm/150x200cm), 2017
WAR RUG TREATMENT & WAR RUG PROTECTION
A certain president suggested to inject detergents and swallow hydrochloroquine as a treatment for the COVID-19 virus. While we know that would make things worse. The US had the most infections and casualties. Use garlic and don’t forget to buy extra toilet paper. It's a war out there.
Wall tapestry, 100% cotton, 50x60inches (125x150cm), 2020
WAR RUG COFFEE TIME & WAR RUG DIRTY LAUNDRY
Collages of paintings from the series 'Weapon: Other', unusual murder weapons. Wall tapestry, 100% cotton, 50x60” (125x150cm), 2017
This is a selection of the war rug series. For more info contact mail@aircocaravan.com
VOTING RIGHTS
The best booth of Art The Hague art fair 2019. To celebrate 100 years of Women's Votings rights, men had to pay 6% more when they bought an artwork, to close the gender pay gap.
The artists of art collective Popinnart made round art and the booth was bright 'Barbie' pink completed with 3 ironing boards. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands visited and was excited.
WHITEWASH
100 years of women's voting rights; 100 years of emancipation? Oil in raw linen mounted on wood, plastic bucket, ø12.5x10.5inch (ø32cmx26cm), 2019.
SCENT OF MAGNOLIA
Sweet and Fresh. Ode to Nina Simone and the sad song 'Strange fruit'. Oil on raw linen, mounted on wood, bucket, ø12.5x10.5inch (ø32x26cm), 2019
A FEMINIST VIEW ON GUN OWNERSHIP
Handpainted vase, glass, acrylic, sausage, 6.5x6.5x12inches (16x16x30cm), 2019
RESIST
Bucket, rubber glove, fake nails, foam rubber, ø13inches (ø32cm), 2019
WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE 100 and WHITEWASH at the 2019 Salon of Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam. Oil on raw linen, mounted on wood, bucket, ø12.5x10.5inches (ø32x26cm), 2019
THANK YOU
THANK YOU, 2022
After the artist’s collection plastic shopping bags from New York City. Oil and acrylic on canvas, cut-out, 15x20inches (37x55cm)
There are about 60,000 pounds of waste on the beaches in the Netherlands (27.000 kg). That’s 100 pounds per mile beach, varying from candy wrappers and potato chip bags to cigarette buds and fishing nets. Most of the waste is plastic. To all wasters and polluters: THANK YOU
Art collective Popinnart created a disruptive booth at the art fair KunstRAI in Amsterdam, on the rising sea level that will be a huge problem for the Netherlands, a country that’s for a large part below sea level.
THANK YOU
Oil and acrylic on canvas, cut-out, 15x20inches (37x55cm)
On display at the art fair KunstRAI in Amsterdam, 2022
Selected for KlimaatEXPO at Museum De Fundatie, Zwolle, 2022
THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING HERE
Oil and acrylic on canvas, cut-out, 15x20inches (37x55cm)
On display at the art fair KunstRAI in Amsterdam, 2022
ASSOCIATES
GREAT ARTISTS STEAL group show, Amsterdam, 2019. A 13x13feet (4x4 meter) wall, 16 paintings called Associates, 12x14”/14x17” (30x35cm/45x35cm), which are an ode to artists like On Kawara, James Rosenquist, Elaine Sturtevant, Deborah Kass, Ed Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and others, appeared in google image search results, next to the originals.
James Rosenquist - Spaghetti
Ed Ruscha - OOF
In the front vandalized and beheaded MLK statues, read about Monument for Martin Luther King here.
VAN GOGH MINIS
MOTI Museum, Breda, 2016, installation view.
80 contemporary artists were asked to interpret, dissect, complement, or celebrate the iconic painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) in a diorama. Caravan questioned the larger than life gift shop in the Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum. The 80 artworks were on show at Museum of the Image in Breda in 2016.
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP
The box was made with a French linen tea towel on which Van Gogh used to paint. The package of an almond blossom dog shirt was used as the peephole.
Inside the box: the dog shirt, two cut-out model dogs wearing it, a broken tea cup - the ear hanging in the space-, an almond blossom thimble, and an eraser in the shape of Vincent’s buste on a tiny pedestal.
VACUUM
Performance in solitude, two-week artist in residence, Boeddha in de Linie, animated gif, endless loop, 2014
Impression of some paintings made before 2014, oil and acrylic on canvas and fabric.
