PINK de Thierry (born Helena Scheerder, Haarlem, 17 December 1943 - Amsterdam, 25 February 2023) was a Dutch visual artist known for her meta-performance art projects, which included 100 days of living in a painting (At Home, 1984), 30 days of traveling in the US as a performance-art project in 1988, daily entering Arcadia for 60 days in Germany with Et in Arcadia Ego Sum in 1990–91 and leading the Royal Netherlands Army in constructing Checkpoint to Dutch Arcadia in 1994. Since 1995, she has created a series of works entitled Letters from Arcadia.
Early years
Belgium, 1963–1971 PINK began her career as a stage and film actress in Brussels under the name of Helen Pink. She trained with the experimental Living Theatre when it presented Frankenstein in Brussels, Jerzy Grotowski protégé André Desrameaux and Yoshi Oida at Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris. During her time in Brussels PINK was influenced by graphic designer and visual artist Raphaël Opstaele, poet Marcel van Maele, poet and visual artist Marcel Broodthaers (in whose vernissage of his Musée d'Art Moderne, Département des Aigles she participated at his home in Brussels)Goldwater, Marge, et al. MARCEL BROODTHAERS catalog Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 1989 (EN) and architect Jef De Groote.
In the autumn of 1968, the Laboratory of Theatrical Research at Louvain University commissioned André Desrameaux and PINK to create an experimental theatre piece. The resulting performance, Erektion,Leclercq, Catherine & Devillez, Virginie (eds.) MASS MOVING – un aspect de l'art contemporain en Belgique – Éditions Labor, Brussels 2004 (FR). used text and vocalization by actors on a multi-level, wire-mesh stage over the audience. Erektion began a new art group, Mass Moving, which focused on art in public spaces.
Participating in a performance artwork by James Lee Byars in the Wide White Space Gallery in Antwerp in 1969Harten, Jürgen (ed.) (1986) James Lee Byers – The Philosophical Palace, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (DE/EN) moved PINK toward the visual arts. Utrecht cultural alderman Jan Juffermans commissioned PINK, Opstaele and De Groote (who became Mass Moving) to create an outdoor event in the city center. The result, Motion (1969), was Mass Moving's first art intervention in an outdoor public space. A number of intervention projects on the scale of city life were created in public spaces in Europe, Africa and Japan. In January 1976, at the end of the Sound Stream project, Mass Moving disbanded.
Travels and return to the Netherlands, 1972–1980 After Mass Moving's L.E.M. project for the Sonsbeek Buiten De Perken outdoor art festival in ArnhemSONSBEEK BUITEN DE PERKEN (1971) catalogue I&II Sonsbeek, Arnhem (I) p. 118,119,204 (II) p. 27 (NE/EN) and the Butterfly Project (Venice Biennale, 1972),Lebeer, Irmeline (1972) "Mass Moving" Chroniques de L'ART VIVANT nr. 32, Paris p. 11 ff (FR) PINK left Mass Moving and settled in the Netherlands. From 1972 to 1980, she worked on performance works with and for postgraduate students and professionals in a number of fields. During this period the artist traveled to West Africa to research local rituals, studied Japanese theater with Yoshi Oida at Peter Brook's Centre International de Recherche Théâtrale in Paris and witnessed ancient rituals by Motohisa Yamakage in Japan.See for an introduction on ancient Shinto history and rituals: Yamakage, Motohisa THE ESSENCE OF SHINTO – Japan's spiritual heart - Kodansha International, Tokyo 2006 (EN).
Performance art
L'Art du Bonheur: Man Woman Child series, 1980–1990
From 1980 to 1995 PINK created a number of intervention-based meta-performance projects in which an iconic human unit, Man Woman Child (MWC), was used as a metaphor for humanity's cultural transference.Rodrigo, Evert (1993) NOOIT IETS NIEUWS ONDER DE ZON, Nederlandse Kunst Rijksaankopen, Waanders, Zwolle p. 36 ff. For each project, PINK explored a theme with a mixture of public-space intervention and performance, installation, photo and video art. Large, "official" photographed state portraits remain from the exhibit.
In 1981's East West Home Is Best MWC lived for 30 days in a specially built, fully furnished suburban apartment inside a Holland Festival exhibition in Amsterdam, where 30,000 visitors filed through as MWC lived their lives.Snoep, Derk P. and Perrée, Rob (ed.) PINK WORKS (EN) Editions d'Art PAP, Amsterdam 1988Exhibition catalog Kitsch uit de Kunst, p. 35. Holland Festival 1981. Description of the artwork and Pink interviewing her heteronym, Mrs de KoningRuler, Dick van (1983) "PINK L'ART DU BONHEUR" PLAN NL journal on architecture and urban development nr.3 pp. 13–18
VideoSketchBook (1983) found MWC living one day apiece in 12 row houses on a 1930s street in a provincial capital. PINK adapted this performance piece into a video installation of 12 photo and 13 film portraitsPerrée, Rob (1983) DE PEEPSHOW VAN PINK, De Groene Amsterdammer weekly nr.30 p. 17Perrée, Rob INTO VIDEO ART Idea Books 1988 p. 26 ff. (NE/EN). at Frans Hals Museum Haarlem, FFRuler, Dick van (1984). MAAR WAT ZIE JE DAAR NU EIGENLIJK? catalogue Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem Vleeshal Middelburg, MMK-Arnhem,Oele, Anneke & Brandt Corstius, Liesbeth. VIJF JAAR AANWINSTEN HEDENDAAGSE KUNST 1984–1989 MMK-Arnhem 1989. Alkema, Joke PINK in FAM. catalogue MMK Arnhem 2004Westen, Miriam. Exhibition catalogue Museum Arnhem (NL), 2015: Spiegeloog. Het zelfportret in de Nederlandse kunst 1900–2015 Waanders, 2015. SALA I Roma,Turner, Jonathan. VideoSketchBook and Standing Stone by Pink in DOUBLE DUTCH, catalogue Edizioni SALA I, Roma, Italy 1992 (EN/IT)Crisafulli, Fabrizio (February 1994) PINK, JULIET Vol. XV nr.66 p. 46 (IT), Italy <http://julietartmagazine.com/issues/ Turner, Jonathan (September 1992) Schijn en Werkelijkheid, TABLEAU Vol.15 nr.1 p. 35 ff. Fotofeis Edinburgh,Reinaudo, Alain & Tisseron, Serge (1993) PUBLIC and PRIVATE – secrets must circulate - exhibition catalog (EN). Stills – Institut Français d'Écosse – Alain Reinaudo. Scotland p. 56,57 and Galerija Klovic Zagreb.Perrée, Rob (February 1989) PERFORMANCE IN DE JAREN TACHTIG – PINK geeft glans aan het alledaagse, KUNSTBEELD Vol.13 nr.2 p. 50 ff.
At Home (1984) considered MWC the ideal family in Haarlem, Bergen and Middelburg (Frans Hals Museum Haarlem,Haarlems Dagblad 11 mei 1984. Oomkes, John HET RITUEEL VAN HET DAGELIJKS LEVEN KCB Bergen. Vleeshal Middelburg.Jong, Erik de & Dominicus-van Soest, Marleen. PINK AARDSE PARADIJZEN. Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem & Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede 1999 pp. 138, 246. Leigh, Roderic (2/1989) ART IN THE OPEN, Holland Herald p. 20 ff.Oosthoek, Andreas DE GENTSE COLLECTIE catalog. Bureau Culturele Zaken, Middelburg 1984Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant 28 July 1984. EEN DROOMHUIS OP HET ABDIJPLEIN), which hosted them for 100 days in their city centers in an ideal garden against a backdrop of a full-scale painting of an ideal house (sleeping in a camper bus behind the 100-m2 exhibit).
Tea Time (1986) was a VPRO television project in which MWC explored the ritual of a filmed tea party, a conversation piece with a prominent family ending in an "official" group portrait.Turner, Jonathan (February 1991) TEATIME WITH PINK,ARTnews Vol.90 nr.2 p. 13 ff. (EN) USA
HouseRites in Crystal Museum (1987) revealed humankind's affectionate and possessive relationship with personal objects at home, set in the context of museum-art conservation.Leigh, Roderic (1989 February) PINK's HOUSERITES in the CRYSTAL MUSEUM, TWO and TWO Mickery bi-monthly p. 15 ff. Dutch National Arts Council.
In Ter Zake. Business as Usual. USA 1988, a government-sponsored orientation trip to the United States turned into a 30-day performance artwork.Kuyvenhoven, Fransje (ed.); Rodrigo, Evert GEKREGEN – aanwinsten van de staat 1990–2010 Cultural Heritage Agency, Art Collection Dpt., Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2011 p. 101 ff. (NE/EN-summary) MOCA, Los Angeles and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.<Snoep, Derk. PINK WORKS exhibition catalogue (NE/EN). PAP Amsterdam 1989
In Standing Stone (1989) MWC walked with their only luggage, an ice-age boulder, to the intersection of the Saale Glaciation lateral moraine and the actual North Sea coast. The travelers and their two-ton luggage stayed overnight at the Haarlem Frans Halsmuseum. When they arrived at their destination the following day MWC stood, motionless, on top of the boulder.Erftemeijer, Antoon. Slapen in het Museum, 100 JAAR FRANS HALS MUSEUM, Jubileumboek Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2013 p. 202Het Parool 8 April 1989. Houts, Cathérine van, PINK GEEFT GLANS AAN DE ALLEDAAGSHEIDNRC Handelsblad 21 April 1989. PINK 'HOLLANDS DAGBOEK'Tsuji, K. 15 June 1991. STANDING STONE by De Koning Family, Poetry Magazine nr.37 (JA), Japan The boulder is on exhibit in front of PINK's former studio at Overtoom nr. 16 in Amsterdam.
In Electronic Painting at the 1990 Tomorrow is Yesterday exhibition at Museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft, a white-gloved chief curator replaced a painting of the Holy Family (c. 1500, unknown master) by a beautifully framed photo of MWC at their 1989 overnight stay in the Frans Hals Museum. A video of the Holy Family painting was shown on a monitor in an open safe; after visiting hours, the safe was locked."Pink" MORGEN IS GISTEREN catalogue. Kultus, Delft 1990 p. 44 ff.
Entering Arcadia, 1990–1995 In 1990–91's Et in Arcadia Ego Sum, a smartly-dressed MWC entered Arcadia daily for two months. Arcadia was a large room with a half-open door in the center, bordered by four enlarged (50 x) green Lego-type trees and flowers, in Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn and Kunsthaus Hamburg respectively.Honnef, Klaus; Donker Duyvis, Paul; Rodrigo, Evert, et al Et in Arcadia Ego Sum in SCHRÄG exhibition catalogue. Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1990 (DE), Germany
In 1991 follows Direction Arcadia; under an official road sign pointing to アルカヂア (Arcadia), MWC stranded with luggage at a crowded intersection in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
The installation artwork Ferry d'Arcadie III, featuring a ferry carrying the ashes of PINK's studio works, some other leftovers and a safe with an eternal flame, was exhibited at the Van Reekum Museum (presently Coda Museum) in Apeldoorn in 1993 and in the Vleeshal of the Frans Halsmuseum in 1998.Becht, Frits & Bless, Frits PAPIER PER SE exhibition catalogue Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, 1993 p. 32 ff. (NE/EN)
Checkpoint to Dutch Arcadia (1994) was a performance project in which PINK commanded the Dutch Royal Army in a three-week campaign to close a portion of a -long, century-old wall built to withstand any future attack on the city of Amsterdam. With 200 truckloads of sand and 30,000 sandbags, the Royal Engineers and Infantry (directed and led by PINK) filled the opening. At noon daily, PINK addressed the men about the artwork and its purpose. An official road sign said Welcome to Dutch Arcadia and See You Again in Arcadia in the languages of occupiers of the Netherlands (now EU member states) and immigrants expelled from the Netherlands during the 1990s.Het Parool 6 June 1994. Houts, Cathérine van DIENSTPLICHTIGEN DIENEN KUNST EN PINKLe Soir le 7ême 15/16 October 1994. Calmé, Roger LE PLAIDOYER D'UNE ARTISTE (FR), Belgium
More art
Beyond Language: Letters from Arcadia (since 1995)