Jake Caleb

Last days to see my work without start without end (2024) as part of the group exhibition 'Vergeet niet in te checken' @c3.rotterdam The work is a series of digital and analogue prints that trace the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK through a personal lens. Thanks again to @marlene.t.d and @cbkrotterdam who curated and organised the exhibition respectively. The show features works by many other Rotterdam based artists who were awarded the city's research and production grants. It is open daily from 11:00 - 18:00 till Sunday 5 April.

Documentation from A passage (2023) @an.other.world.project.space . For the exhibition at an other world, I created a space for listening and reflection, thinking how I could make a public forum for private experiences of loss and assimilation— a space that could host others who also recognised these stories and were able to share their own. A passage emerged from an investigation into the suppression of particular narratives within society, especially those pertaining to migration and grief. The work follows a ‘pilgrimage’ I made in early 2023 to Allahabad, India to trace the history of my ancestor John James Caleb, a priest of Indian descent. This journey was sparked by the death of my father due to Covid-19 in 2021. The exhibition took form of an installation featuring 35mm black and white photographs taken during my travel to India together with photographs I took in the UK prior to my father passing away. Alongside the installation, I invited Merve Kılıçer (TR), Tilly Shiner (UK), Michael Lewis (ID/NL/IN/UK) and Nael Quraishi (UK/PK) to contribute to the exhibition’s themes. The contributions of Kılıçer, Shiner and Lewis were shared in two listening sessions on the opening and closing weekend. During the course of the exhibition, Quraishi was in residence at an other world to produce site specific photo-collages. Thanks again @tillyshiner , Michael Lewis (DJ Hoekboud), @mervekilicerstudio and @naelquraishi for their time, energy and insight shared in the making of this show. Looking forward to developing the work and research further over the course of 2024. Photography courtesy the artist, @lowbrows and Nael Quraishi. This work was supported by @cbkrotterdam , @gemeenterotterdam . The contribution of Tilly Shiner was supported by @anartistsinfo

Thanks again to the superstars @shortpiecesthatmove for releasing my poetry pamphlet ‘Through soft seam slips the knife ultramarine’ (2023). Here are some photos from the launch on Saturday at de Kas, Rotterdam (Snapshots @vpredelina and @ulufercelik 💚)

Big, bigger, biggest ever. Rotterdam Art Week is the week when Rotterdam does Art. Everyone is sucked into its orbit: artists, venues, audiences. All eager to encounter Art with a capital A. Amidst the rush a few may ask themselves, is big really better? Particularly those at the PrintRoom on Friday night for the launch of Talker #16, an interview zine by Giles Bailey. For the launch, this edition’s interviewee Martín La Roche shared his Musée Légitime, a museum in a hat. With each tiny artwork contained within, came an anecdote for how it entered La Roche’s millinery collection. These tales bound intricately to the miniature objects themselves possessed their own profound pull, drawing the artist and the audience together. An interweaving of storytelling and public presentation that truly takes you, in La Roche’s own words, “beyond the performance and the art”. >> In a hat. Jake Caleb reviews 10 years of Talker! and the launch of Talker#16, featuring live performances by Giles Bailey and Martín La Roche, at PrintRoom Rotterdam, Friday 27 March. >>Talker is an interview zine about performance by artist Giles Bailey. Since 2012 each issue publishes a long-form interview with an artist who works in an innovative way with live practice. @worldissudden >>Martín La Roche is a visual artist living in Amsterdam. His works often find their starting points from existing collections of objects and memories, archives as modes of storytelling which he reassembles into installations, performances or publications. He runs Musée Légitime. @martinlarochec @goodneighbourbooks >>Jake Caleb is an artist based in Rotterdam. He formalises his artistic research through exhibition making, hosting events and organising initiatives. He also works as a photographer for (a.o.) PrintRoom. @_jakecaleb @printroom_rtm From guest editor Nienke Terpsma @nienketerp @fga_editor Full image captions and more at http://sarn.ch/publications #performance #zine #storytelling

**Opening tonight from 6pm** The exhibition takes place @c3.rotterdam and is open daily from 11am - 6pm from 26 March to 5 April. The exhibition brings together artists who received research and presentation grants from CBK Rotterdam, giving an opportunity to exhibit works that haven’t yet been shown in the city. I’ll be showing my work 'without start without end' that I made following a residency at Frans Masereel Centrum and was exhibited in 2024 at puntWG, Amsterdam. The work is a series of digital and analogue prints that trace the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK through a personal lens. The exhibition is curated by Marlene Deutinger. Other participating artists include: Funda Baysal, Ari David, Clem Edwards, Kazuma Eekman, Maria Fraaije, Laura Grimm, Anne Kolbe, Alice Ladenburg, Sarojini Lewis, Flo Meijer, Ciska Meister, Matilde Patuelli, Niels Post, Suelae Robinson, Maurik Stomps, Marika Vandekraats, Yin Yin Wong, What A Mess (Pedro Gil Farias & Hugo Pilate), Gamze Ronald (Gamze Öztürk & Ronald Bal) and Theodor Reinhardt (Junkspaceoddity). The exhibition is made possible by @cbkrotterdam Poster design @75b_official

More documentation from 'The Idyll' Open Studio @kunstsenter During the residency I developed work around ideas of technology, contemplation and rest, questioning our dependency on digital devices and online platforms. At the art center I organised a workshop around these ideas where I led different exercises using collected images and writing. For the workshop I used an image mapping exercise first introduced to me by artists Philipp Schwalb and Dafni Melidou. I also used examples of work by the artist Suzanne Treister for a science/ speculative fiction-esque writing exercise, thinking about AI agents. The results of these exercises were displayed alongside photographic works and experiments made using xerox prints. Thanks again to Hordaland Kunstsenter for inviting me to the residency and everyone who participated in the workshop.

Open Studio ‘The Idyll’ with Jake Caleb To culminate his residency at HKS, Jake Caleb hosted an open studio sharing artistic research he has been developing under the title ‘The Idyll’. During the research he worked with open call participants to discuss our digital dependency on Big Tech and to challenge the underlying motives and intentions in the implementation of their technologies. Together the group created their own ‘data sets’ of shared images and took part in speculative writing exercises influenced by the work of British artist Suzanne Treister, to explore themes of rest, contemplation and post-work society. The research also led to visiting the site of a proposed data center in nearby Dale, a small town known for its textile factory. The data center will be run by hydroelectric power, the main reason for the town’s industrial history. Caleb has been interested in how the abundance of natural resources and cheap energy converge with past and present technological advances and the effect this has had for the people of Dale. He will be further developing this work in 2026.

OPEN STUDIO WITH JAKE CALEB TIME: Tuesday 9 December, 16:00 - 19:00 PLACE: Hordaland Kunstsenter, Project Room (1st floor) PRACTICAL: Jake's studio is on the 1st floor, only accessible by stairs. Please contact us if you have questions about accessibility, we will do our best to accommodate you. HKS's artist in residence Jake Caleb (@_jakecaleb ) will be sharing new research during an open studio presentation. During his time at the art centre, he has been exploring our dependency on digital devices and their effects on our capacity for contemplation. You are welcome at the open studio where he will be sharing the research in progress. Drop by at any time between 16:00 and 19:00, no appointment needed.

Meet @_jakecaleb , Hordaland Kunstsenter’s artist in residence in November/December! Jake Caleb (1990, UK) is a Rotterdam based artist. He uses an interdisciplinary approach that brings together his artistic research. He formalises these enquiries through exhibition making, hosting events and organising initiatives. His works are often made collectively or in collaboration with others and manifest in compositions of image, sound and text. Although his work covers many areas of study, a core concern for his practice is examining the differences between the public and the private. Caleb is part of the artist initiative an other world who hold open space for observation, experimentation and dialogue. From 2022-24 they ran a project space in Rotterdam Zuid. He previously cooked with Eathouse, a collective that instigates dialogue on how the culinary informs the social; and co-initiated the Singing Club of Rotterdam, an anti-choir that explores how we use the voice. His work and collective practices have been shown at Kunstinstituut Melly (NL), BRUTUS (NL), WET film (NL), WORM (NL), Hotel Maria Kapel (NL) and Open School East (UK). He has undertaken residencies at Frans Masereel Centrum (BE) and Chander Haat (IN). He holds an MA from the Piet Zwart Institute (NL) and a BFA from Chelsea College of Art & Design (UK). 📷: Öncü H Gültekin

Workshop Open Call: ‘The Idyll’ with Jake Caleb 🗝️Application deadline: 10 November 🗓️Workshop dates: 22 + 29 November and 6 December Jake Caleb, who will be our artist in residence from 19 Nov - 16 Dec, will be running a workshop series exploring our dependency on digital devices and their effects on our capacity for contemplation.  He is looking for participants to join three sessions where we will discuss these ideas, read selected texts and make creative writing that reflects on our collective research. During the sessions we will also visit the physical sites where digital media is stored within Bergen and spaces of potential contemplation within the city. Read more at kunstsenter.no (link in bio)!

INFORMATION SESSION: Beginning a Broodfonds November 5, 7–9pm [In English] (Almost) this time last year, we opened ‘Pension Planning’, an exhibition by Jay Tan. Within the social landscape of ageing populations and countries that ‘get old before they get rich’—where government bonds and investment funds call into question whether ethical communal welfare funds could or ever did exist—this exhibition metaphorically postured towards the task of saving for retirement, a mountain often impossible to climb. Unfolding through the public program, the conversation also evolved to include other forms of financial protection, particularly focusing on solidarity-based social alternatives, such as the ‘pardna system’ (via Derica Shields @internetderica ) and the ‘broodfonds’—a Dutch collective welfare model that effectively allows independent entrepreneurs to provide each other with temporary sick leave from work. In following up on this in practical terms, we’re hosting an information session for anyone interested in joining a soon-to-be-established broodfonds, at home at A Tale of A Tub but with complete agency held by its members. Organised with the support of Jake Caleb (@_jakecaleb ), the event will take place on November 5, during which a representative from the Dutch organisation BroodfondsMakers will provide all the information needed to get started while also answering any questions you might have. Key to the broodfonds model is the idiom ‘the more the merrier’. So please share around with fellow freelancers searching for better worker protections, and consider this risk-free social initiative for yourself as well! If you’re planning on joining, please register for the event by emailing [email protected]. And if you’re on the fence about signing up to a broodfonds, don’t worry, coming to the event doesn’t automatically mean you have to join. Logo by @sabo_day 🍞

Works from the Vault 2019: "Your silence will not protect you" was a nine hour radio programme with a live audience that aired at the Piet Zwart Institute Master of Fine Arts’ “Studios Open” on 9th February 2019. The programme featured performances by the students, tutors and alumni and submissions from local and internationally based artists. It was live-streamed online throughout the day programmed and hosted by Jake Caleb and Daphne Simons The title of the radio show is quoted from the essay ‘The Transformation of Silence’, by writer, poet, intersectional feminist and activist Audre Lorde (1934-1992). In the essay she urges readers to speak out against fear- that it is better to be bruised and misunderstood than trapped afraid in muteness. By airing difference, Lorde proposes a politics of speech that breaks down our imposed and imagined separations, becoming the grounds for shared understanding and commonality. In Lorde’s spirit we used the radio as a space of experimental collective fantasy and dialogue. Contributions and performances by: Katrina Niebergal/ Mark Pearson / Bella and Theo / Anders Aarvik / Pietro Librizzi / Susana Oteiza Collar / Jennie Foot / Freakaholics Radio/ Steve and Samantha / RIZO / Kate Briggs / Yanik Soland / Romar De Bonte and Roel Hovenga / Nina Wakeford / Niekolaas Lekkerkerk / Rosa Farber / Bernd Krauß and Honey Jones-Hughes / Kate Briggs / Lukas Meßner / Berglind Erna Tryggvadóttir / Petter Dahlström Persson / Jan Verwoert / Ash Kilmartin & Bergur Thomas Anderson / Bobby Sayers & Mike Sperlinger / Teddy Coste / Kate Briggs / F* Choir / Olga Hohmann / De Player / Jamie Johnstone Kane / Josie Perry / Merve Kılıçer / Daphne Simons / Lucía Bayón Mendoza / Jaume Clotet / Nathan Bather/ Bobby Sayers & Lili Huston-Herterich / Beth Bramich / Jake Caleb / Josje Hattink/ Tilly Shiner / Bleach Pizza / Merve Kılıçer and Alexander Iezzi / ELS Photos: myself, Daphne Simons, Collette Rayner and no doubt others! *Also sad to note that since this year the programme has had to move out of these studios due to ongoing educational budget cuts...