Shifra Osorio Whewell (VAV – moving image) – Rebecca & Her Daughters

A Newsical broadcast covering the Rebecca Riots: It is July 13th 1843 and West Wales has suffered terrible harvests, while rents, tithes, poor rates and crucially the turnpike tolls rise higher and higher. Agricultural communities are plunged into dire poverty. Recalling a blessing in Genesis ‘Let thy seed possess the gate of those who hate them’, mobs of farmers dress themselves as Rebecca to march on the tollgates. In the battle that ensues, fluo fringed gate builders clash with the masked and resplendent daughters of Rebecca.

PART OF RIETVELD REVIEW(ED) 2021

The Gerrit Rietveld Academie is proud to present the video portraits of selected graduation projects of 2021 as part of Rietveld Review(ed). With these portraits, we highlight and celebrate remarkable art projects from the next generation of artists. 

Rietveld Review(ed) is part of the Graduation Show’s side programme. Independent, external committees were asked to reflect on the Graduation Show (7-11 July 2021) as a whole and to signal current tendencies and themes within the exhibition. The reflections and observations were processed by the Rietveld Academie into a reflection report.

The committees were also asked to select several projects by graduates that support these observations. Presenter and program creator Luuk Heezen and cameraman Rik Lauwen then created video portraits of these selected projects and their makers. The two-to-four-minute videos offer an accessible way to explore these intimate and personal art projects further and get to know the artists and designers behind the projects – something which might not have been possible for visitors amidst the plethora of art works in the exhibition, or because the art projects could only receive a limited number of visitors due to the COVID-19 outbreak.