Pepijn van den Nieuwendijk
Pepijn van den Nieuwendijk started his creative career at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunst (the Royal Academy of Art) in The Hague. Here he followed the study Graphic and typographic design. After his studies he started working as an illustrator, became a painter and now mainly makes sculptures of ceramics. Pepijn his artwork has a recognizable art historical background. Fairytales, old stories, historical facts and mythology are blending together.
For Heinen Delfts Blauw, Pepijn created a sculpture in the form of an extinct dodo. With the name ‘De Blauwe Dodo’ (the blue dodo) he launches this almost mythical animal into eternity. “The dodo has played a big role in my work for a long time now,” says Pepijn about his sculpture. “The fact that human beings, and especially the Dutch traders in the 17th century, contributed to the extinction of this cute bird, makes me feel guilty. This is my way of giving back to the dodo by giving it eternal life.”
The dodo went extinct in the same time period when Delft blue was born into existence and that is no coincidence. The traders of the VOC (East Indian Trading Company) travel across unforgiving seas to Asia, in pursuit of the best Chinese blue-on-white porcelain. The predecessor of Delft blue porcelain. On their way to Asia they make a stopover on the island of Mauritius where the dodos live, without any natural enemies. The sailors unknowingly introduce new enemies to these chubby ground birds, such as rats, pigs and monkeys. As a result, the dodo goes extinct.A handful of dodos are taken on board the ships to function as special gifts or curiosities.
"A shard only shows a small part of a larger whole. This stimulates the imagination and invites you to imagine what the entire image looked like."
“In my exhibition ‘The Time Traveler’ it appears that the legendary bird did not become extinct in the 17th century, but has been traveling ever since,” Pepijn says. “The displaced dodo is looking for companions and a safe place to live. He lives on because we keep depicting him in books, art and movies.” Van Nieuwendijk recognizes himself too in the tragic bird. “I used to not travel much or far, until I had to go to China for an assignment and a whole new world opened up for me. The dodo also never left its island, because it could not fly. Until suddenly he was taken away by sailors and his journey began.”
All kinds of historical details van be recognized in Pepijn’s artwork, such as the history of Delft blue pottery. “As an amateur archaeologist, I often found Delft blue shards during my adolescence, which I found particularly interesting. A shard only shows a small part of a larger whole. This stimulates the imagination and invites you to imagine what the entire image looked like. About twenty years ago I started working with ceramics. During my work in China, as part of an exchange project between Delft and the porcelain city of Jingdezhen, I became acquainted with the Chinese blue-on-white porcelain that inspired Delft blue ceramics in the 17th century. This gave a new dimension to my work.”
His preference for Delft blue pottery merges with history and elements from comics and the circus. The result is a brand new unique world, in which the dodo is still very much alive. Like a stray Delft blue shard of pottery of which we only see a small fragment and are allowed to fill in the rest by using our own imagination.