WALKS WITH TATI’
2022
‘Walks with Tatí’ is the title of a series handmade folding booklets. There are 12 booklets, each booklet contains 10 photographs of a walk made with my dog Tatí in the year 2021. I photographed walks in France and on the island Schouwen – Duiveland in Sealand, the Netherlands.
It is the second year of the covid pandemic. During lockdowns our freedom of movement is limited to walking an hour around Voussac. We live there. It is a village in the Allier, a rural “departement” in the heart of France. Tati is born here. We found her as an eight weeks old puppy in a dry ditch between empty fields, abandoned. When a lockdown is lifted, we visit my family in Sealand, the Netherlands.
Here in France Tatí and I walk through our ‘neighbourhood’: the hamlets of Beauron and Arfeuile and Chirat, the forest of Vacheresse, For long walks we descend to the Bouble. This little river seems a shock in the landscape. The quietly rolling hills are suddenly cut of by a steep ravine. A canyon. On the bottom we follow paths along the stream . After the rains in winter and spring it is a turmoil but in summer is mostly pebbles and rocks and a babbling brook. It feels like walking in a Schubert song. It feels safe.
In Sealand we walk on beaches and piers and along the sea dike around the village where my mother lives. Tati seems a born beachcomber, always munching little crabs. From this dike you can see the flat lands laying far below the water level of the surrounding sea. The sea retreats far with the low tide. At high tide it comes halfway up the dike. With strong winds, the sea makes large waves which are beating the dike and fall back in a continuous movement.
Photography by Connie Dekker. Written by Connie Dekker en Ron de Zeeuw. Inspired by Nescio, John Clare, Robert Frost. Size booklet: 195 x 140 x 3 mm
Material: kraft karton and premium luster photo paper.
Biografia essenziale
Connie Jacoba Dekker nasce nel 1960 a Rotterdam, nei Paesi Bassi. Vive e lavora tra l’Olanda, l’Allier e la Toscana. Ha conseguito il Master of Fine Arts presso la Rijksakademie, Amsterdam nel 1990, e in seguito un Bachelor of Fine Arts in Scultura presso l’Academy of Arts St. Joost, Breda (Paesi Bassi).
Inizia il suo percorso artistico verso la fine degli anni ottanta, come scultrice, lavorando opere come ‘recipienti’ collocate direttamente sul pavimento o sulla terra.
Negli anni novanta Dekker ha avviato una serie di installazioni, utilizzando il ricamo su larga scala, sui temi dell’attesa e dell’assenza, utilizzando motivi ripetitivi.
Dal 2000 Dekker ha iniziato a lavorare su disegno, performance, fotografia e video: una serie di performance sul ricamo sono state allestite ed esposte in Italia.