Esther Polak

Esther Polak (born 1962) is a Dutch visual artist. She is active in the new media field and was one of the first artists to experiment with GPS. Since 2010, Polak has worked full-time with Ivar van Bekkum as an artist duo PolakVanBekkum. She lives and works in Amsterdam.

Career

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Esther Polak studied painting at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (1981-1986) and then mixed media at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (1986-1989).

Her interest lies in capturing movement in a landscape. Polak gained notoriety with her "locative media" projects, such as Amsterdam RealTime (collaboration with Waag Society and Jeroen Kee),[1] MILKproject[2] (collaboration with researcher Ieva Auzina and RIXC) and NomadicMILK. These projects use GPS to arrive at a contemporary landscape representation.[3]

In addition to using GPS, Google Earth as an artistic medium plays a vital role in her video work. Unlike other 3D worlds, Google Earth represents a 1-to-1 relationship with the world as we know it, and this representation also carries a political, social, and economic reality.[4] Video works using Google Earth include A Collision of Sorts (2017), Going To Be/Go Move Be (2018) and The Ride/The Ride (2019).

Works

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  • 2019 The Ride/The Ride (installation/film)[5]
  • 2019 Pendulum (Performance)[6]
  • 2018 Going To Be/Go Move Be (film)[7]
  • 2017 A Collision of Sorts (short film)[8]
  • 2016 The Mailman's Bag (installation/film)[9]
  • 2008-present Spiral Drawing Sunrise (performance)[10]
  • 2007-2009 NomadicMILK[11]
  • 2004-2005 MILKproject[12]
  • 2002 Amsterdam RealTime[13]

Awards and nominations

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  • 2017 Nomination Golden Calf for A Collision of Sorts[14]
  • 2016 Special Mention 2Annas FF[15]
  • 2016 Expanded Media Preis Network Culture
  • 2015 Nomination Academy Award for Astronomy and Art[16]
  • 2005 Golden Nica Interactive Art, Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria[17]
  • 2004 Gada Balva art prize, Riga, Latvia

References

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  1. ^ Waag. "Waag" (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2018-08-11. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  2. ^ "MILK". www.milkproject.net. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  3. ^ Mediamatic. "Esther Polak: kunstenaar". Mediamatic. Archived from the original on 2022-07-01. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  4. ^ "PolakVanBekkum | www.li-ma.nl". www.li-ma.nl. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  5. ^ Oberon Amsterdam www.oberon.nl. The Ride | IDFA. Archived from the original on 2023-05-29.
  6. ^ "KUNSTBLIJFTEENRAADSEL > Bigart 2019". KUNSTBLIJFTEENRAADSEL (in Dutch). 2019-09-14. Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  7. ^ "Gaan om te zijn ⋆ Nederlands Film Festival". Nederlands Film Festival (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  8. ^ "A Collision of Sorts ⋆ Nederlands Film Festival". Nederlands Film Festival (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  9. ^ "The mailman's Bag PolakVanBekkum". EX (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  10. ^ "Spiral Drawing Sunrise". Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  11. ^ "nomadicmilk". www.nomadicmilk.net. Archived from the original on 2019-10-23. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  12. ^ "MILK". www.milkproject.net. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  13. ^ "Amsterdam RealTime" (in Dutch). De Waag. Archived from the original on 2018-08-11. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  14. ^ "The mailman's Bag PolakVanBekkum". EX (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  15. ^ "Winners of 2ANNAS 2016!". 2 Annas. Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  16. ^ "Uitreiking Akademieprijs Astronomie en Kunst — KNAW". www.knaw.nl. Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  17. ^ "Esther Polak | www.li-ma.nl". www.li-ma.nl. Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
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