Tinkebell., the Dutch performance artist best known for making a handbag out of her own cat (above), presents an exhibition of her work at Torch Gallery in Amsterdam starting later this week.

Called Looove TINKEBELL. etwas Spaß für den neuen TORCHmeister, the exhibition surveys her work over the last four years.

Here's some text from Tinkebell.:

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Looove TINKEBELL.
etwas Spaß für den neuen TORCHmeister

a show by

TINKEBELL.
from Saturday the 31st of October through Saturday the 28th of November 2009

Exclusive performance by songwriter One Trick Pony on the opening on Saturday the 31st of October from 5 pm-7 pm

Above: Baby Bunnies

TORCH Gallery is pleased to present Looove TINKEBELL. etwas Spaß für den neuen TORCHmeister, a survey exhibition of the work of installation and performance artist TINKEBELL. (NL) of the past four years. Also on show will be the new series ALMOST 18+ for your pleasure (2009) and a limited edition of posters from the photo series realized in collaboration with photographer Mirjam Muller featuring TINKEBELL.’s Baby Bunnies series will be for sale.  The exhibition will be launched with the exclusive performance by upcoming songwriter One Trick Pony (Lowlands Festival) who dedicated one her signature tunes to TINKEBELL. She will perform on the opening day, Saturday the 31st of October from 5pm–7pm.

Above: Her name is...

Looove TINKEBELL. offers a chronological overview of TINKEBELL.’s installations, projects and performances of the past four years. On show will be the central piece of her first project My dearest cat Pinkeltje (2004) that earned her instantaneous controversial fame: a purse made out of her cat. Documents of the performance series Her name is,.. (2008) will be presented together with their main props, three stuffed dogs, TINKEBELL dragged throughout the streets of Chicago, L.A. and Beijing. Also on display will be the documentation of the installation/happening SAVE THE PETS (1) (2008) where a hundred of hamsters rolled around in individual plastic balls transforming the exhibition space into a living installation.

Above: SAVE THE PETS

On show at TORCH Gallery will also be her unsettling Baby Bunnies (2008), a series of manipulated stuffed animals that interrogate our consumption habits, as they seem to convert the living and beloved into yet other throwaway commodities. For sale during the show will be a special edition of the book Dearest TINKEBELL., a collection of hate mails received by TINKEBELL., and, more significantly, a full-fledged web-based investigation of those who emitted them. For her series ALMOST 18+ for your pleasure, she embroidered C-prints of visual material found on the website ‘Almost 18+’, sadly known for its daily upload of SM material featuring physically abused young women.

Whether she works with stuffed animals, porn material or hate mails, TINKEBELL. does one thing: she plays with the formless and unspeakable, the object of our innermost fears and desires. She toys with death, sex and everything that leads to that: humiliation, objectification and, ultimately, consumption. The intricate relation existing between the media business (that manufactures representations) and rituals of incorporation (everything and everyone in a media society has become an image to be consumed) is something Adriaan van der Have, TORCH Gallery founder who died this last April, very well understood. TINKEBELL. dedicates this exhibition to him and his son, Mo van der Have who follows his father as the new running director of TORCH Gallery. In memory of Adriaan van der Have who used to call himself the TORCHmeister, TINKEBELL. baptized Mo van der Have, der neuen TORCHmeister.

Above: pages from Dearest Tinkebelle,

TINKEBELL. (1979) was born in Goes (NL) and attended the art academy in Tilburg before taking part to the post-Graduate Design program of the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. She lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Looove TINKEBELL. etwas Spaß für den neuen TORCHmeister will be running from the 31st of October through the 28th of November 2009 at TORCH Gallery in Amsterdam. The opening is scheduled on Saturday the 31st of October from 5-7pm. Festive opening with special music performance by One Trick Pony. Book Dearest TINKEBELL., and a limited edition of posters from a photo series realized in collaboration with photographer Mirjam Muller featuring TINKEBELL.’s Baby Bunnies will be for sale at the gallery.