Roos reflects:
I would like express my gratitude for the artist in residence period at Eskenazi. I look back on a very fruitful and joyful time in Bloomington! It has been a period with concentrated time for research in both the library and my studio. I have also had plenty of conversations with students, studio visits, workshops and lectures. The exchange has definitely been meaningful, both for me and -- hopefully -- the students as well.
One of my main goals was to do research at IU's Astronomy Glass Photographic Plate Collection in the Wells Library. It contains images taken in Kirkwood observatory from around 1902 until the late ‘80s. The collection is still uncategorized, and therefore all the more interesting to discover. A working station was set up for me on the 11th floor of Wells Library and the archivist and curator of photography, Bradley Cook, provided information about the history of IU with great enthusiasm. Overall, it was an inspiring visual experience, which I intend to convert into new installation work (as an ongoing process).
Instead of working solo on a large visual installation in my studio, I soon decided to focus on this research and interaction with students. There were several presentation moments to connect, such as in the FAR Center, during my lecture, in my studio during workshops and lessons, and during a critique-a-thon for M.F.A.s.
I got in touch with the theater department, where I met the head of lighting design and the technical staff. In photography, I participated in weekly critiques by graduate students. Nora Gibbon developed a workshop on color, starting with students in my studio, and taking on techniques I use.
Another highlight was the two-day workshop 'drawing with shadows' in the Grunwald Gallery with [Visiting Assistant Professor] Johanna Winters. Different techniques could be tried out in 3 corners on the subject of ‘human presence and absence’. We shared ideas about scale, elusiveness and form/inverse. Students were very enthusiastic. A special detail: the glass we used for ink drawings came from leftovers in the archive in the Wells Library. It brought everything together in a meaningful way.
Eventually, I discovered the dye lab at the Fibers department. In my search for materiality, other than working with light, I came up with the plan to print on fabrics – large digital prints of the glass slides that I found in the archive, but also hand-printed stencil prints on fabric, on which I can later project. In the last week, when all students were gone on spring break, I was able to work crazy long days using silkscreen on textile. It’s not finished, but it is my intention to make a room filling installation with this material in my studio in Amsterdam.
The support from the Eskenazi team has been great – from a personal welcome by [Event Services Coordinator] Olivia [Kalish] on the evening of arrival, early breakfast with part of the team next morning, to weekly dinners, meetings and hikes in the surrounding parks and reserves. Everyone has been extremely generous both inside and outside the University. Although I had to miss my family and young son for six weeks, I never felt alone for a moment. An absolutely warm welcome from a special and close-knit team!
Doing projects abroad always involves a certain unpredictability; can you settle in, do you enjoy working, is the context appropriate, is there a connection? This residency turned out better in every way than I could have imagined. I'm taking home a wealth of new ideas – as well as a suitcase full of silk prints and dyed cloth. I thank you sincerely for making this possible.
