Aruban artist Germille Geerman presents ‘True Beauty of Imperfection’, his account of the Caribbean Linked II residency programme at Ateliers ’89, Aruba. Geerman writes an insider’s review of the residency’s closing exhibition, interspersed with personal anecdotes about his fellow artists. He shows not only the diversity of the work, but also the dynamics between the residents and the bonds they formed throughout this shared experience.

True Beauty of Imperfection

It’s 9:06am, I woke up on the porno couch… rays of sun in my face… silhouettes of the watapana tree, playing on my body… I’m hungover…

Mark wasn’t there to say goodbye… and apparently all the girls went off too… by now their plane should be leaving at any moment. It’s the morning after the Expo… Yesterday… Well… It was magical… It was all perfectly aligned for excellence… And that was it indeed. On the dot, to the point of perfection.

A couple of nights without sleeping, but the energy… The LIFE…? Well, you should have been there to live it. 10 Young Artists, Elvis, 3 curators, a great Bunch of Aruban contemporary artists mentoring us through the Journey. A whole gang of mimes starting off the Grand Opening… What a Performance it was… Chills down your spine as they come to you and look you in the eye… You’ll get the “kippevell” once you blend in and become a part of this extraordinarily supernatural stroll… Everything black & white, Graffiti everywhere… even on the donation box…

As you walk in, you bump into Veronica’s installation, a tremendous piece… circles & lines… Actual lines, in your face… Uber Multi-Dimensional. And off course her artwork… Gorgeous collages, carefully mounted… every night she worked till 8 or so in the morning… I was there… I saw it with my own eyes… So you better believe it.

Now we wander off to Sofia’s space… “Mi Chilindrina,” only I get to call her that… Flawless brushstrokes watered down. Around that, she made a gallery, so everybody can feel what it’s like to be in that chair and see the world through her eyes… With a combination of vibrant lime green/white and whatever magic that sticks in between.  Sofia is a tremendous street artist from Puerto Rico Living in New York… Don’t believe me? Go ask El Residente, I dare you…
Sofia did some “mental-pictures” of our Journey, the nightlife, the Ateliers, her own thoughts & compositions all organically, by hand… All neonic-fine on the line… all square framed…

Our momentas… There is one missing, though. Her ode to our Carubbian night. Well, That’s a group secret I suppose, and it stays between us, the fortunate few, forever in our hearts… The Dutch call that “Een onder-onsje.”

Now we wander off to Robin, an Ateliers ’89 Prodigy… She just finished Rietveld… Her cookie is sculptures; She did a minimalistic (yet larger than life) piece. Our circular auras & reach, is what I call it. Can’t remember its name though… Then we have “A pet a day keeps the doctor away…” And right next to it, we have the giant plaster… You won’t believe this story if I told you…

Well, here goes anyways…

Her original mold was clay, installed on the inner stage in the Yard of the Ateliers… This goes back a couple of days ago… It rained… Cats, dogs, pimps & Hoes… The cover couldn’t save the piece… She had to remake it again… in one of the studio spaces… This Type of work.. You need your privacy, it’s a very intimate process.

But wait… It now has to be Transported to the Expo area… In Papiamento we say: “Ey ta unda e rabo di porco ta Krull…” I, by accident dropped in when they were transporting it… “Paar di sak’I webo puñete,” A bunch of guys watching a young lady fighting her way with this monumental heavy piece…
But we did it… And the end Result, turned out to be glorious in all its depth…

As we follow to the next room, to the right hand we find The Flexible Man Installation… By Dhiradj. A Tremendous collection of 4 full body suits… Yes full body, I wore one… Do you see the dancing Flexibleman that gets beaten up by the dominant FlexibleLady in his film? Yes, From Head to Toe… Filled with a rare collection of all sorts of textiles… From all over the world… And what an Honor it was to feel the presence of the Flexiblemen Wandering around the expo sharing the joy and illustriousness.

To The Left… Rodell’s Kaleidoscopic Paradise…

For the last week, Rodell has made a High Reliefic Backdrop Filled with Patterns and somehow All the Patterns connect back through each other… But that Wasn’t enough… To Make it more Irie he had to “leave it be, all crumpilly…” So he mashed it all up together, and on that, he Projects his Massive archive of kaleidoscopes which at the end did create this altered state of being and a Divine Auratic Composition of one’s being and Form.

He should GIF them though… Well At least I hope he’ll do it, anytime in the near future… The Follow-up, I hope… 😉

Next Room: The walls are black… and you start to see 2 Massive abstract photographs… Oui, Oui… We bounce off to Shirley… People look at “pictures” and they go like… It’s nice…
Baby… That ain’t nice… That’s ACID, right there… Real Acid… Chemistry… Mushroom Clouds when stuff goes Wrong… A Life Threatening Procedure… “just so you can look at the pictures…” Real danger, folks… Analog Photography… And Blasted up to that amazing life-size…
But the depth of the content… You’re gonna have to ask SHisHi, herself… That’s her Journey… Something only She can Describe…

Now we go to the left: Black & White Pictures..? WRONG..! Pinhole Photography… Nowadays, you set your smartphone camera to B&W and shoot anything, anywhere… Not this Guy… Omar’ll make a camera out of anything… cans, buckets or boxes… He shoots them… develops them, digitize them and blow them up to these great sizes… Such pictures take minimum 20 seconds to take, so sometimes in ends up being a cute/sharp still… But just Sometimes… It has these Amazing retrospective/nostalgic feel to it… Imagine that…

We keep on going to the left… It’s the King’s Corner… “son of diplo”

Mark Took all his time studying the intense History of Patterns, Ancient Stuff… Lot’s of stuff… And At the end he developed our Flag… Creation of a flag… It ain’t an easy task, folks… I’ve stood there… We even went out on field Studying Patterns found on Aruba… From leftover floor turned into a parking facility to the Archeological Museum, Fences & Architecture on the island… From All of this, He got Amazed with a block structure… A very common block on the island, yet specific… Used very, very wildly throughout our infrastructure… Well… He molded it… TWICE…

But we are not going to talk about that… We’re talking about the one who made it, and was gold plated and installed to be interacted with, as if it was a “draaitoll”…

And it’s platform? The design behind our flag… Right there on the ground, like a board game. So, it’s not a board game… It’s a TileGame… Developed by M.K. ’13…

Listen… Close your eyes…
There’s a sound here, that don’t belong…
But there are no more rooms… except the restroom…

In the wall, there is a glitch… Kind of looks Like a frame of a door… But Blinded… Or is it? It must be… But there’s a sound behind it… As you go closer, It kind of seems that there’s a cold breeze coming from somewhere… And as you dare… You realize, that it’s not a door, it’s not blinded… But, It’s a curtain… The whole expo was warm… Finally, air conditioning… Believe you, me… You jump in whether you want to or not… Welcome to the Pedestal… It’s a polaroid… But a Huge one, a motion one… Hanging on the wall… And it’s all dark… There’s a pillar, a gorgeous one, “E Pedestal…” And a load of money raining down… And on top of the Pedestal, You see the face of a man… Is it the young version of the monopoly man? His rebel version maybe? Or is he just a common man… The common man, Fascinated by money, or maybe Frustrated by money, All that money comes with and in between… You can see his lips moving, but you can’t hear a word he is saying… But you wanna…
Ohhh, All the possibilities… Point being, at the End… When you want it to Rain… You do the RainDance… When you want money, You Go to the Pedestal…

Take five, right?
Yeah, Let’s grab a wine by the bar… Red or white, You decide… Greet some people, have a laugh, share some thoughts with our visitors, Talking to them, How’ve they been, how’d they like it so far… Smiling with the DJ, enjoying the Grooves… Bust a move… Letting loose… You know..? Then we see, There’s another door open on the other side… All white inside… Something Must be Going On… Ohhh, but there is…

It’s Kevin’s area… Our Other Prodigy, just graduated also from the Rietveld, yet he cannot be with us tonight… As we speak, he’s receiving his YOUNGBLOOD award in HOLLAND, he had to leave yesterday… But what can we say… the Man’s in his Prime at the moment… We are happy for him…

It’s the last stop… To get there you must walk amongst the party, the whole gathering, sitting areas and everything… But you do get there eventually… I was drunk that night, by the way…  So don’t ask me the names… But as we walk in, we look on top, Floating Piles of DriftJunk… Rubbles… But from an angle as if you were standing at the bottom of the ocean looking at them, wondering when your next breath shall be… And the Northcoast ain’t no easy coast… So, from that angle, You’re probably in a Flush… Trying to get back up… I know… I’ve been there too…

Wash off those piles on to our flawless beaches here… So I suppose they ain’t so flawless anymore… Thank’s allot, waterjunk.. Pollution everywhere…

Now to his Masterpiece… The Travelling Rock… Yes, Rock… Boulder, as big as a beanbag chair… But, heavy, I tell you… The Bronco took us through hell & back to get it… Ask Mark… We still have the scars to prove it… But yes… Rock on wheels, Rocking On… You can drive it, if you want… It’s right there… Kevin loves rocks… They are powerful and transmit energy, he always says…

Well Folks, This was it… I Hope You’ve enjoyed the ride… Until Next year… See You At the next Caribbean Linked… In whatever corner of the world that we shall be… With lots of Love…

The Ateliers ’89…

BIBA ARTE..!!! 😉

About Germille Geerman:

Germille German is an emerging visual artist and writer from Aruba. Born in 1988 he started using film at the age of 15 working for the local ATV station. He has travelled widely, and started formal training at the Ateliers ’89 under Elvis Lopez in 2009. He started freelancing at the age of 20 and is looking for his next great destination.

CARIBBEAN LINKED II is a residency programme and exhibition organized by Ateliers ’89 Foundation in collaboration with ARC Inc. and The Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. and funded by the Mondriaan Foundation. The programme took place from August 25th through September 6th, 2013 in Oranjestad, Aruba.