All images © Rein Kooyman, shared with permission
What does it take to find quietude amidst the chaos of everyday life? For some it may be deep breathing or practicing mindfulness, but for artist , moments of peace start with a walk.
Kooyman constantly travels back and forth from his Amesterdam studio to France, where he’s hiked Écrins National Park for the past nine years. He spends as much time as possible observing his surroundings on long walks, compelled to collect stones along the way. At first, the act of gathering stones and taking them back to Amsterdam felt like a method to tether him to the region, even from afar.
Over time, these efforts started to inform his practice. “Intuitively, I began tying the stones to strings, and each day, I added more,” Kooyman says. “The days spent tying the stones turned into weeks, and I couldn’t get enough of the rhythm of this simple activity. It brings me back to myself, to memories of the area, and to the constant desire to simplify my daily existence.”
Trekking up and down mountains, often with 30 kilograms of stones on his back, Kooyman contemplates the idea of gravity, which plays a large role in his suspended installations. From slate stones and river rocks to large leaves and curled slivers of tree bark, the artist creates assemblages of natural materials in consistent circular forms. Evoking moments of stillness, almost as if pausing time, each clustered entity awakens the spirit of France’s Southern Alps until Kooyman eventually dismantles the piece, returning each rock and leaf back to their origins, thus repeating the cycle.
Each month, the artist focuses on one installation that takes two to three weeks to complete. Kooyman is anticipating a solo show in the winter, which will conclude this project and allow him to start more performance-based works. Find more on Kooyman’s and .
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