Flaccid

Black pencil on 9" x 11" sheets of paper, individually framed
Mounted on plywood panel in 2026. Background color: Farrow & Ball #314
First published in Butt Magazine #4, 2002 (Family and Friends)

Spreads and pages

Drawing and dancing are branches of the same tree. Eisenstein showed Arnoud that drawing is a line in motion, that drawing is a movement that pauses but can also start again. This led to the next step: the realization that you can arrange the sheets of paper in a sequence and keep changing it. Suddenly, the wall in his studio was covered with drawings arranged in lines and thus in a specific order. They were hung as spreads, so that each drawing resembled a page from a book with the spine cut away. But the order—the narrative—could also change again.

Solipsistic Skies

He ejaculated on the paper, outlining the blobs with watercolour crayon. Once it had all dried, he made everything around these constellations black with pencil. The drawing then became a window looking out towards a cosmos-like world, full of nothingness. This blackening process was a monotonous task, which allowed him to withdraw happily into the right side of the brain, where timelessness rules.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

FGT's paper stack works are 'interactive, minimalist sculptures composed of large piles of commercially printed paper that invite viewers to take a sheet, exploring themes of loss, renewability, ownership, and the democratic distribution of art. By allowing the work to be depleted and replenished, they act as monuments to memory and impermanence.' Over the years I collected quite a few of them and in 2024 I copied them with pastel crayons, as precise as possible. For a better understanding of FGT's intentions, I give them away for free as well.

Krijn Giezen - MacGuffin Magazine #9

The heap of rubble is overgrown with brambles, but with a bit of cautious climbing I make it to the top of what was once the shed. Chunks of yellow and red brick, a section of window frame, an assortment of rooftiles, a piece of lead flashing, a moss-covered chair, a dented aluminium pan – what a loss.

Captured

In Captured, filmmakers Arnoud Holleman and Batya Wolff explore the complex relationship with photography within Batya’s family. Her father, Max Wolff (1926–2025), bought a camera after the war and photography became his coping mechanism for dealing with war trauma. But as he photographed, the war remained ever-present. In Captured, Batya explores her father Max’s vast image archive to tell her own, new story about the lasting impact of the war. A discovery in the family archive shifted her perspective on her family’s traumatic past.

Unqualified / Try Harder

I’m still sensitive to throat noises and swallowing. All sorts of things came together in that drawing. Technically speaking, pastel was my discovery, alongside line drawing. Still, I’d rather not be in that realm of drawing. With a negative self-image, fears, and perceived shortcomings, the personal quickly becomes a slippery slope. With a lack of self-worth, who or what are you then? Doesn’t being an artist benefit from a healthy ego?

Broken Thinker

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin is an iconic misunderstanding. Since its creation in 1881, it has been said that the sculpture expresses the activity of thinking, while it merely expresses the pose of thinking. Once you realize, the Thinker is an empty form on which anyone may project his or her thoughts. This has led to a range of ideas - and clichés - about man who reflects on his existence.

Platitudes

Every artisthood is teeming with platitudes. Repetitive anecdotes, topoi, that give every artist biography the same setup: he or she, always alone; real talent eludes schooling; thousands shouted out, only a handful chosen. Large or small talent, they all put their lives at stake for something that wants to transcend life. Art goes before offspring, reaches beyond death.

Another Erased Drawing

The Trouble With Value

Curator Kris Dittel writes: What practices bring us closer to understanding the potential of art to represent different notions of value in the contemporary? How can we counter the certain apathy of the contemporary to engage with positions that resist this mood and present us with challenging perspectives on value? The project attempts to locate artistic and institutional practices that offer viewpoints beyond the strategy of blending-in and conforming to the rules.

Immovably Centred

At De Appel, Arnoud Holleman invites actors, curators and museum directors to read his text. The title "Immovably Centred" derives from the motto that Rainer Maria Rilke used for his biography about Auguste Rodin: 'The hero is he who is immovably centred'. Rilke puts Rodin on a pedestal as a superhuman genius, Arnoud Holleman stages a contemporary artist who, still, identifies with this kind of artistry.

My Dad Playing Piano

When my dad died we found comfort in sorting out his belongings. The closet in his study kept the usual mix of essential and trivial: drawings from high school, student paraphernalia and tons of paper work from his job as a teacher. In an old shoebox we found a microphone and some old music cassettes. When he had retired, eight years before his death, he picked up playing the piano again, took lessons and studied every day. Sometimes he would make a recording of the pieces that he played, as a reality check.

Call me

It's either filthy thoughts or intellectual blah-blah, and nothing in between. Look closer. More closer. Look at me! You hear me?! If there's any reason for me to be ashamed, it's you. The only reason I'm standing in front of the town hall is because I happened to have been 'created' by a world-famous sculptor: Rodin, the genius of deep emotions and existential gestures. Yeah right. The way I'm standing here, Rodin is the only person who's never once laid a finger on me.

I Shot Madonna

When she comes past I click away hysterically. Not even with the intention of getting her picture but I'm in the press enclosure and have to pretend that I'm a photographer. I'm so occupied with the camera and she goes by so fast that I hardly catch a glimpse of her. The print I have made is blurred. Also that night was the first time Madonna showed up with a black hairdo instead of her usual blonde, so nobody recognizes her on the photo.

Time Warp

A cinematic report on the processes of growth and change taking place on W.G. Witteveenplein in Rotterdam. Each film began with the construction of the park in early 2003 and shows the various changes that took place in the following twenty years. The films were supplemented four times a year with new material, which resulted in four very short films of 6'35" each.

Polaroid

Polaroid of the former Polaroid factory in Enschede. I photographed the logo in 2001 as research for 'Wij', an exhibition at Kunstvereniging Diepenheim investigating the cultural identity of the Twente region. The factory closed in 2008 and the text sign has been removed in 2009. Polaroid is an edition of 20, a few are still for sale.

Nieuwkomer

For months after I first stood on that little bridge, I continued to circle around the windmills. Not only with my camera, but also with a microphone. When you look closer, the polder turns out to be an arena of conflicting interests. The cluttering of the landscape stands in opposition to climatological necessity; economic and ecological interests are locking horns for dominance; innovation oriented towards the future has to compete with the appreciation for history. The counter argument is always around the corner.

Krijn Giezen - in memoriam

The niche he created for himself testifies to a love-hate relationship with art, which you see reflected in the work. Art gives freedom, but it is also overcoded. In the end it’s just as effective at locking the spirit up again, with rules that can be as Kafkaesque and constraining as the excessive bureaucracy that he continually had to deal with as a landscape artist.

Herman Heijermans

At the time my boyfriend was writing a biography of the Dutch playwright Herman Heijermans, who lived from 1864 to 1924. Heijermans was all over the house, in books and in pictures. I choose this one, because of how he stares into the camera. I drew two 'prints' next to the original one and framed them individually.

Now

What happens is that the grit under your feet mixes with the noise in your head. And in the monotony of the constant succession of footsteps, residual thoughts escape like intestinal slugs. Initially this is unpleasant. The physical exertion is a booster, the cadence of your breathing and your footsteps become the haunted baseline under the story of your life, as you recount it to yourself at that moment.

Artists Anonymous

For the last couple of years in a row, artists had been invited who felt at home in a big show environment. This had thrown up a number of lively and playful installations, but this year the budding tradition was in jeopardy: for a variety of reasons there was next to no money for art projects. The only kitty in the budget that might be called upon had been set aside for the printing of the half a million paper napkins that were to be used during the festival.

10.000 lives

As an artist and writer, Arnoud Holleman's extraordinarily diverse output is connected by a strong thematic concern with the life and significance of images. Often this concern is manifested through acts of appropriation that transform an image's meaning through a shift in context, or a removal of contextual elements. This concern with the lives of images has also led him to create works that explore the historical prohibitions on image making.

Threshold

Found in a container in Delft, by a fellow student at the academy. Swapped for an easel and a modeling stand. After the threshold was worn out on one side, it was turned around, after which the other side started to wear out as well. It remains unknown how long this process has been going on altogether. Maybe it once belonged to the house of Vermeer.

Lauren & Claudia

Interview covergirl Lauren Hutton was photographed by Francesco Scavullo in 1973. She's wearing Galanos - from his exciting fall 1973 collection. Accessorized by Galanos, makeup by Way Bandy, hair by Rick Gilette. The photo was re-photographed by Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm in 2003, with model Uta Eichhorn posing as Re-Magazine covergirl Claudia. She's wearing a black dress by Hermès. Styling by Katja Rahlwes, makeup by Renata Mandic.

Roosegaarde and Rodin

It’s fascinating to see how the myth of Rodin permits such a transformation in image-building, the reason being that myths are inconstant in nature, to the point of mendacity. Immortality doesn’t exist, after all, but myths are legitimate as a faith construct. Art is faith packaged as craft.

Monsieur Holleman is certainly not Andy Warhol

Beeldconsumptie. Beeldproductie. Beelddistributie. In de afgelopen decennia zijn deze drie steeds meer met elkaar verweven geraakt. Overtreedt de hergebruikende kunstenaar de wet? Want wie is de eigenaar van beelden? De film Museum, te zien in het Frans Halsmuseum in Haarlem, biedt inzicht. Tekst en beeld Arnoud Holleman, Groene Amsterdammer 25 februari 2015 - verschenen in nr. 9

Just in Time!

Just in Time (JIT) is the name of an economic principle, based on producing the right component at the right place at the right moment, in order to prevent waste. Artists manage their time in the opposite manner. They deliberately choose indirection, and are open to mistakes and unexpected tangents. Guest curator Kopsa asked the artists to define what they regarded as 'necessary'.

Re-Magazine

Re-Magazine's great virtue is its willingness to expose sentiments that seldom find public expression, most often relating to the apparently trivial experiences and memories that make up the larger part of existence. Alongside this editorial idiosyncrasy, it is beautifully designed and photographed, each issue adopting a form to suit its subject - Emily King, Frieze, October 2003.

Tekeningen 1995 - 1997

Met een zweepje onder z'n oksels geklemd 'berijdt' een naakte man een op z'n kop staand paard. Terwijl hij met z'n anus over de paardenlul glijdt, perst een eveneens naakte vrouw zich met moeite in het poepgat van het rijdier. Om haar daad kracht bij te zetten, duwt ze met haar hand tegen een denkbeeldige muur - een muur die tevens de kadrering vormt van het op papier getekende seksspelletje. (Nathalie Faber - Het Parool 3-2-1998)

Aaltje Kraak

In Marslaan, a row of five 1960s houses was waiting to be demolished. The new building standard in the city had been raised to four stories, so these houses no longer sufficed in that spot. The large windows that had once made the houses so modern were now boarded up. On the blank wood of the underlayment along the full length of the block was written in spray paint: Get rid of that crap!

Radio Balzac

De Balzac van Auguste Rodin staat vanaf 1 februari in Het Oog in het van Abbemuseum, als special guest in een installatie van Arnoud Holleman. In deze tijdelijke opstelling draait het beeld langzaam rond. Bezoekers kunnen het beeld van alle kanten bekijken en de 19e eeuwse schrijver kijkt ondertussen rond, naar onze tijd. Via een online radiozender ? Radio Balzac ? worden meningen, discussies en andere inzichten over het beeld verzameld en uitgezonden.

We

The definition of the word definition is: 'the description of the essence of something in one or two highly precise and succinctly formulated sentences.' That is by no means easy, and we certainly don't pretend to be able to do so. Nevertheless, there are a lot of characteristics that we find interesting and that we come up against in wondering about what might be typical of the region known as Twente. But those things aren't so much absolute as they are relative.

In Memory Of Things To Come

The history of the Wilhelminasteen began on 30 May 1891 when the 10-year-old Queen Wilhelmina and Queen Mother Emma visited Rotterdam. To celebrate the occasion, hundreds of boats sailed on the Maas and 3,000 schoolchildren performed an aubade. The brand-new little Queen will give her name to the Wilhelmina Quay and the act that goes with it is a stone-laying ceremony.

Driving Miss Palmen

I understand why you want to be a writer. It?s better to be mediocre and famous than just being mediocre. But the difference between you and me is that I?m able to create a character of myself in a story I choose to live in. And you, I?m sorry to say, are not. That makes me a writer and you just a character in someone elses plot. And as for my work: The big misunderstanding about my work is that critics keep comparing the fictious Connie Palmen with the real Connie Palmen, instead of comparing her to other great characters in litterature, like Madame Bovary, or Lolita...

From the Corner of the Eye

For many artists, sexual orientation is just one of the many significant aspects in their work, but is an aspect which is often ignored in exhibitions and art criticism. From the Corner of the Eye offers an image of contemporary visual arts, seen from a "queer" perspective. In this exhibition, it is hoped that the homosexual gaze will sometimes be emphatically present and at other times will disappear into the background.

Bert Luttjeboer

Susan Sontag

I've always thought of photography as something very magical and it is my belief that this is based on a genuine experience: in my early childhood there must have been no sharp distinction between a real thing and its image - in the same way that kids see themselves as inseparable from their mother until the age of three, I thought that object and image were simply two different manifestations of the same energy.