Else Madelon Hooykaas (born 28 September 1942, in Maartensdijk) is a Dutch video artist, photographer and film maker.[1] She makes films, sculptures, audio-video installations and has published several books.
Biography
Madelon Hooykaas grew up in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Before leaving for Paris in 1964, she studied under various Dutch photographers.
In 1970 she left for Japan to interview a number of photographers and with the aim of experiencing life in a Zen cloister. She was the first European woman to get permission to stay in a traditional monastery to take photographs. In 1971 her photo book Zazen, was published, for which she and the Dutch poet Bert Schierbeek compiled the texts. The publication of this book greatly enhanced her reputation and English and German editions followed. Five years later another book appeared, Death Shadow, for which Hooykaas made the photos and Schierbeek wrote the poem.
In 1972 Hooykaas held solo exhibitions of her Polaroid experiments in Il Diaframma in Milan, and The Photographer’s Gallery in London. Her work plays with space and time. Photo works by Hooykaas form part of the permanent collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou/Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris) and the University of Leiden.
In 1972 Hooykaas started an intensive collaboration in the field of film with the British photographer and filmmaker Elsa Stansfield in London and Amsterdam. Their first movie, ‘Een van die dagen’ (One of Those Days) was broadcast by Dutch public TV in 1973.[2] It was also shown at festivals in London, Toronto and New York. After that followed ‘Overbruggen’ (About Bridges) (1975), which was shown in several festivals including Cork, Rotterdam, and Grenoble.[2]
Under the name Stansfield/Hooykaas they made their first video installations from 1975 onwards including ‘What’s It to You?’ (1975), Journeys (1976), Just Like That (1977) and ‘Split Seconds’ (1979).[3]
Their work deals with the relation between nature and spirituality and explores scientific principles and natural forces such as radio waves and magnetic fields. Hooykaas and Stansfield make use of contemporary technology such as film, audio and video in combination with organic materials such as sand, glass and copper.
A comprehensive monograph The Artist as Explorer was published by Jap Sam Books in 2023. [4]
^Madelon Hooykaas, edited by Claire Putten, Eleonoor Jap Sam, Madelon Hooykaas, with international contributions by Lauren Dyer Amazeen, Jan Bor, Malcolm Dickson, Dorothea Franck, Jacqueline Grandjean, Madelon Hooykaas, Chris Meigh-Andrews, published by Jap Sam Books.ISBN978-94-92852-99-1
Else Madelon Hooykaas (photographs and diary) and Bert Schierbeek (essay) Zazen, 1971, N. Kluwer, Deventer; a German edition of Zazen was published in 1972 by Otto Wilhelm Barth Verlag, Weilheim Obb, BRD; and the English edition of Zazen in 1974 by Omen Press, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Else Madelon Hooykaas / Bert Schierbeek Death Shadow, 1976, Fiz-Subverspress, Alkmaar. The poem Death Shadow [for Else Madelon Hooykaas] also appeared in: Bert Schierbeek De gedichten [The Poems], de Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 2004, pp. 522–528.
Else Madelon Hooykaas 'Vita in Sequenza' in Il Diaframma no. 172, May 1972, p. 7.
Else Madelon Hooykaas 'Time, an Abstract Symbol' in Creative Camera no 99, September 1972, London, pp. 318–319.
De Boom in natuur, cultuur en religie, edited by Wouter Prins, Museum for Religieuze Kunst, Uden, ISBN978-90-71647-00-0, p52-3, p57, p93.
Madelon Hooykaas (photographs and diary) and Nico Tydeman (essay) Zazen nu - Het dagelijks leven in een Japans zenklooster, 2010, Ankh-Hermes, Deventer.
Revealing the Invisible - The Art of Stansfield/Hooykaas from Different Perspectives, Edited by Madelon Hooykaas and Claire van Putten, 2010, de Buitenkant Publishers, Amsterdam. ISBN978-94-90913-03-8
Dorothea Franck 'Kunst en aandacht – Het beklimmen van Mount Analogue’ in: Stansfield/Hooykaas - Revealing the Invisible, De Ketelfactory, Schiedam, 2011, pp. 19–29. ISBN978-94-90360-11-5
EWVA European Women's Video Art in the 70s and 80s Edit by: Laura Leuzzi, Elaine Shemilt, Stephen Partridge, Publisher: John Libbey Publishing Ltd UK, 2019 ISBN9780-86196-734-6
