Innocence.
Isn’t that a much more interesting idea than beauty and comfort?
John Maxwell Coutzee
w o r k s
content
edition #1 June – August 2021 in LUXFER OPEN SPACE
Česká Skalice | Czech Republic
edition #2 June 2023 in WWII bunker
Dishoek, Zeeland, the Netherlands
edition #3
September 16 – October 7, 2023
Gallery Durden and Ray Los Angeles, U.S.A.
edition #4
October 3, 2023 – January 4, 2024
Gallery SmitArt
Middelburg, the Netherlands
edition #5
November 11 – December 24, 2023
Kunstverein Projektraum Bahnhof25 Kleve, Germany
edition #6 from November 11, 2024
Verbeke Foundation
Kemzeke, Belgium
edition #7 from February 18, 2025
Kunsthal45
Deb Helder
abstract
w o r d s
personal context | content
DISTANT SUFFERING | the project
frontpage | Smith Art | October 2023 photo courtesey of © Bo de Jong
Populist politicians and critics often dismissively refer to the left's preference for 'drinking tea with terrorists' in their calls for the use of military violence against perceived threats to the ‘Western way of life.’ This discourse to promote resolute, violent action against supposed terrorists plays an important role in the current conflict in Yemen, where weapons manufactured and supplied by the West are used in a crude war effort. This war has taken the lives of thousands of civilian victims, almost all of whom remain anonymous in media and official reports.
i.d. of a shared cup of tea is a small monument for 14-year-old Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud from Sa’na, Yemen. Raja was killed on 23 March 2018 by a CB 52 B/B cluster bomb manufactured in Jackson, Tennessee, at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant in 1977 . . .
DISTANT SUFFERING XX | i.d. of a shared cup of tea
edition #1
June – August 2021 | in LUXFER OPEN SPACE, Česká Skalice | Czech Republic
work
tea glass | Loctite Super Glue Glas
sand from sea dyke West Kapelle [ Zeeland, the Netherlands ] sand from Česká Skalice [ Czech Republic ] plexiglass hood | 25 x 25 x 25 [ x o,3 ] cm. console | 110 x 25 x 25 cm. MDF 9 mm., primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt
brass engraved text sign [ 95 x 50 mm ]
in memory of Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud [14]
† 23 March 2018 | Sa'dah – Yemen
Raja was hit by a CBU-52 B/B cluster bomb, manufactured in 1977 in the Milan Army Ammunition Plant, Jackson, West Tennessee, U.S.A.
Photos art work next page courtesy of ©2021 Lukáš Jasanský
DISTANT SUFFERING XX | i.d. of a shared cup of tea
edition #2
June 2023 | in WWII bunker in Dishoek, Zeeland, the Netherlands
work
simple tea glass | Loctite Super Glue Glas
sand from sea dyke West Kapelle [ Zeeland, the Netherlands ] sand from Sana’a [ Yemen ], collected and send by Galid Al Kholani Al Fakeeh plexiglass hood | 25 x 25 x 25 [ x o,3 ] cm. console | 110 x 25 x 25 cm. MDF 9 mm., primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt
postcard mill with 100 portrait and 100 landscapes postcards front: image broken / restored tea cup in two layers of sand back: text
in memory of Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud [14]
† 23 March 2018 | Sa'dah – Yemen
Raja was hit by a CBU-52 B/B cluster bomb, manufactured in 1977 in the Milan Army Ammunition Plant, Jackson, West Tennessee, U.S.A.
DISTANT SUFFERING XX | i.d. of a shared cup of tea
edition #3
September 16 – October 7, 2023
Gallery Durden and Ray | Los Angeles, U.S.A.
work
simple tea glass | Loctite Super Glue Glas
sand from sea dyke West Kapelle [ Zeeland, the Netherlands ]
sand from Sana’a [ Yemen ]
sand from Venice Beach / Los Angeles [ U.S.A.], colected by Ben Jackel
plexiglass hood | 30 x 30 x 30 [ x o,3 ] cm.
console | 30 x 30 x 30 cm. multiplex 12 mm.,
primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt
QR-code leading to this calalogue
Photo art work next page courtesy of ©2023 Ben Jackel
DISTANT SUFFERING XX | i.d. of a shared cup of tea
edition #4
October 3, 2023 – January 4, 2024
SmitArt | Middelburg – part of INSANES, oeuvre expo by Johans de Koning
work
simple tea glass | Loctite Super Glue Glas
sand from sea dyke West Kapelle [ Zeeland, the Netherlands ]
sand from Sana’a [ Yemen ]
sand from Venice Beach / Los Angeles [ U.S.A.]
plexiglass hood | 20 x 20 x 20 [ x o,3 ] cm.
console | 110 x 20 x 20 x 30 cm. multiplex 12 mm.,
primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt
QR-code leading to this calalogue
Photo art work next page courtesy of ©2023 Bo de Jong
Sand from West Kapelle | March 2023
sand from Sana’a – Yemen
February 15, 2023
Sand from Venice Beach, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
July 2023 | by
DISTANT SUFFERING XX | i.d. of a shared cup of tea
edition #5
November 11 – December 24, 2023
Kunstverein Projektraum Bahnhof25 | Kleve [ Germany ]
work
simple tea glass | Loctite Super Glue Glas
sand from sea dyke West Kapelle [ Zeeland, the Netherlands ] sand from Sana’a [ Yemen ] | sand from Venice Beach / Los Angeles [ U.S.A.]
plexiglass hood | 20 x 20 x 20 [ x o,3 ] cm.
console | 110 x 20 x 20 x 30 cm. multiplex 12 mm., primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt
This edition was purchased by the German sculptor Christoph WilemsenWiegmann; the money was directly transferred to Ingrid Rollema's Hope Foundation in the Hague.
Bottom photo next page: courtesy of 2023 Christoph Wilemsen-Wiegmann
DISTANT SUFFERING XX | i.d. of a shared cup of tea
edition #6
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke [ Belgium ]
work
simple tea glass | Loctite Super Glue Glas
sand from my art work Bewaerschole [ Zeeland, the Netherlands ] sand from Beach near Florence [ Oregon / U.S.A.]
sand from Sana’a [ Yemen ] mixed with soil from Pommard [ France ]
plexiglass hood | 20 x 20 x 20 [ x o,3 ] cm.
console | 110 x 20 x 20 x 30 cm. multiplex 12 mm., primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt QR-code leading to this calalogue
brass engraved text sign [ 95 x 50 mm ]
in memory of Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud [14] † 23 March 2018 | Sa'dah – Yemen
Raja was hit by a CBU-52 B/B cluster bomb, manufactured in 1977 in the Milan Army Ammunition Plant, Jackson, West Tennessee, U.S.A.
sand from Western Scheldt, in art work Bewaerschole
September 23, 2024
sand from Sana’a – Yemen
February 15, 2023 by
sand from Pommard | Burgundy France | May 15, 2024
sand from Florence Beach, Oregon, U.S.A. July 2024 by Berbel Lippe and Dani
last drying and mixing the sand and the soil September 2024
DISTANT SUFFERING XX | i.d. of a shared cup of tea
edition #7
Kunsthal45 | Den Helder
work
simple tea glass | Loctite Super Glue Glas sand from Western Scheldt Dyke [ Zeeland, the Netherlands ] mixed with sand from Beach near Florence [ Oregon / U.S.A.] sand from Sana’a [ Yemen ] mixed with soil from Pommard [ France ] soil from Villes sur Auzon [ France ] | D942 mixed with sand from Venice Beach | Los Angeles, U.S.A.
plexiglass hood | 20 x 20 x 20 [ x o,3 ] cm.
console | 110 x 20 x 20 x 30 cm. multiplex 12 mm., primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt QR-code leading to this calalogue
brass engraved text sign [ 95 x 50 mm ]
in memory of Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud [14] † 23 March 2018 | Sa'dah – Yemen
Raja was hit by a CBU-52 B/B cluster bomb, manufactured in 1977 in the Milan Army Ammunition Plant, Jackson, West Tennessee, U.S.A.
drying the sand from Villes sur AuzonFrance | D942 in Saint-Ferréol-Trente-Pas | October 2024
personal context | content
Finding who exactly are the victims of the war in Yemen is a hell of a journey. Most often you will find groups: unnamed "families", "wedding guests" and / or "funeral attendants", "(young) children", "bus passengers", "half the village", etc., etc.
I have literally read hundreds of UN documents. I found no names there. These reports also provide a picture of a huge, well-oiled, bureaucratic organization that is involved in registering war crimes. Without any consequence. The first name I came across was in a newspaper - the Guardian1: 14-year-old Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud from Sa'na. She died by a fragmentation bomb dropped by an American-backed Saudi Arabian drone.
The devastating effects that unexploded bomblets from cluster munitions have inflicted on civilians is well documented. They have killed or injured an estimated 56,000 to 86,000 civilians since World War II. The United States alone has spent more than $ 3.4 billion on demining operations since 1993, including in countries where it released hundreds of millions of bomblets in past wars that continue to kill and maim civilians.2
In the corporate media the war in Yemen is completely absent. And as such interred as an artifact in history - an epitaph waiting for the last breath. The war in Yemen has become a
The war in Yemen has become a museum piece, as can be found in the Leiden Museum of Antiquities where I wandered as a child in the late 1950s. The brass plates spelled strange, often ineffable engraved places and names. Names . . .
From the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea to the Gulf of Aden, all cultures there have a few things in common. One of these is the mandatory drinking a glass of tea on every occasion as a sign of contact. Similarly in Yemen. I was allowed to sit down at any opportunity to drink tea. A ritual that is always taunted by the far-right when people try to do something about intercultural communication: drinking tea is sugar coating Islam terrorism.
I took my memories on those many cups of tea that I was invited to drink in Yemen as the starting point to set up a small monument for 14-year-old Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud from Sa'na.
1. Bethan McKernan | October 3, 2019 | A father's grief and the Made in USA bomb dropped in Yemen https://www.theguardian.com/
2. John Ismay | December 4, 2019 America’s Dark History of Killing Its Own Troops With Cluster Munitions
Magazine New York Times
Photo: ©Omer Fast | 2011
Sill from: Five Thousand Feet is the Best
exhibitions
Grateful for the people and their spaces who invited me to show several editions of i.d. of a shared cup of tea:
LUXFER OPEN SPACE in Česká SkaliceCzech Republic with its 'more than curators' Roman Rejhold and Kate Štroblová who exhibited the first edition in 2021 . . .
The Foundation Bunker Stories November '44, in Dishoekthe Netherlands. In June 2023 Kris van Wezel together with John Daane and Suzan van de Walle invited me to make a contribution during the annual open bunker day. This second edition contained sand from Sa'na Yemen , collected by Galit and delivered by his brother Issam . . .
Carlos Beltran ArechigaUSA invited me during our meeting at Supermarket Art Fairin 2022 in StockholmSweden to show my work in Gallery Durden and Ray in Los Angeles in September - October 2023.
In addition to the sand from West Kapelle and Sa'na, the third edition of the work was completed with sand from America. From Venice Beach in Los Angeles, collected and delivered by the sculptor Ben Jackel.
The work, after three years, now had its final form; the simulacrum was complete . . . .
The architekt Johan de Koning, as one of his sources of his inspiration, invited me to his oeuvre exhibition INSANES at Gallery Smith Art in Middelburgthe Netherlands in Zeeland in October 2023 . . .
The wonderful team of projektraum-bahnhof25 in KleveGermany - Dirk D. Knickhoff, Elisabeth Schink and Ulrike E.W. Scholder – made me part of the very last exhibition in their art space in November 2023 with edition #5. Now in the collection of Christoph Wilemsen.
Marie Verboven of Verbeke Foundation in KemzekeBelgium , presented this version in the winter-exhibition 20242025, from November 2024 on.
For this edition, #6, Berbel Lipe and Dani Ploeger collected sand from Florence Beach in OregonUSA . My contribution: I took some soil from the most expensive Bourgundy wine terroir: le PommardFrance in order to mix it with the soil of the land of Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud from Sa'na . . .
Kunsthal45 | Den Helder
Curator / production / educational program
Margo van der Pool
Volunteers and board
Financial contributions
Municipality of Den Helder
Province of Zeeland / SBKM / CBK
Special thanks to Willy van Houtum |
For this edition, #7, Willy van Houtum&I, inspired by a telephone conversation with Margo, decided to find some ochre-colored sand so typical of this region . . .
DISTANT SUFFERING | the project
Since 2013, by means of the ongoing art-series DISTANT SUFFERING, the Dutch artist Hans Overvliet investigates the role of the media in their representation of (military) violence. This, in the context of themes as perception, memory and identity formation.
Overvliet uses a various range of media, symbols and codes, bringing together dichotomies like beauty and violence, refinement and brutality, the sublime and the vulgar.
As a reporter, Overvliet was an eyewitness to the events in the Middle East during the 1980s. Of course these experiences resonate in DISTANT SUFFERING. So aspects of power, politics, exclusion, censorship and the connection between artist, artwork and viewer in-filtrate his multifaceted conceptual oeuvre.
Martha Jager, curator Vleeshal in Middelburg about the oeuvre: The dedication to art as a relational verb is central to Overvliet's work. On the one hand, the balance between poetry and criticism is special, so that the work never becomes bitter or pedantic, while at the same time the dialogue with the viewer is actively maintained. It is a tender form of activism that moves and urges action and also continuously questions the role of art.
Elements of DISTANT SUFFERING were exhibited in the Netherlands, Belgium, Pakistan, England, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Albania, Germany, Lebanon, the U.S.A., Brazil, Argentina and Sweden.
In 2023, his whole body of paper collages ( 1999 – 2012 ) joined Geert Verbeke’s re-nowned collection of collages and assemblages. In 2024 - 2025 the whole oeuvre of DISTANT SUFFERING was exhibited in the museum part of the Verbeke Foundation. All the work will then be included in the permanent collection.
Next to his art-work he is, together with his wife Willy van Houtum, the founder and every day guardian of ruimteCAESUUR, the29-year old space for contemporary art in Middelburg in the province of Zeeland.
An object that tells of loss, destruction, disappearance of objects. Does not speak of itself. Tells of others. Will it include them?
Jasper Johns
Quoted in Susan Sontag | On Photography
www.hansovervliet.com
curiositas@zeelandnet.nl
photo back site courtesy of ©2023 Bo de Jong