current projects

2021 "Duckweed; or, I Am Making Plan(t)s" is a theatrical work which seeks to support nurturing relationships between human bodies and plant bodies. Through creative story telling, guided meditations and DIY theatrics, this works creates a space for gathering in which the modus operandi is one of improvised encounters. This work adapts Jhor's 2020 work 't kroos.

Work-in-Progress showing have been presented at:
4bid gallery in OT301 (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - August 1st, 2021
4bid gallery in OT301 (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - October 23rd, 2021  view full recording   view images 
2021 "field knowledge" focusses on the workings of "the lawn." This project reads the lawn as a site of tension/conflicting ideological fantasies, existing simultaneously as a multi-species ecosystem and as a single, proposedly equalizing site of public participation (e.g.)

Currently, Jhor is constructing structures akin to Victor Papanek's "[relaxation/entertaining/work] cubes." Jhor's cubes are adapted to function as an information/relaxation station. In this public structure, various texts about "lawns" will be made available. Additionally, local tea and relaxing chairs will be made available, to support the lawn's social workings.

Supporting artist residencies:
OT301 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Plantage Dok - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
NES Atist Residency - Skagastrond, Iceland
Fish Factory - Strodvarfjordur, Iceland
 visit project website   view images 
2021 Jhor sells hand-made plant hangers at Botanische Tuin Zuidas (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). For inquiries, stop by on Thursday mornings or reach out to contact@jhorvanderhorst.nl  view images 

past work

2020, May An interactive website which hosts a variety of autobiographical and fictional material.  visit website 
2020, March Project Proposer/Choreographer: Jhor van der Horst
Improvisers/Collaborating Dancers: Siena Dumas Ang, Sophie Blue, Runako Campbell, Tori Edington, Abigail Kostolansky, Natalie Lu, Sydney Maple, Emma Wang
Composers/Sound Artists: Jenny Beck, Allison Spann
Set Designers: Bhavani Srinivas, Jhor van der Horst
Lighting Designer/Stage Manager: Tess James
Production Stage Manager: Mary-Susan Gregson
Run Crew: Amanda McGinnis, Aleksandra Kostic, Margaret King
Choreographic Advisors: Miguel Guitierrez, Rebecca Lazier

Presented in the Hearst Dance Theater at the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University  view images   view full recording 
2020, January created and performed by Jhor van der Horst

Presented in the Matthews Acting Studio at the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University  view images   view full recording 
2019, April Writer: Zara Jayant
Director: Jhor van der Horst
Lighting Designer: Sam Cryan
Set Designer: Jhor van der Horst
Costume Designer: Sydney Wilder
Performers: Chase Hommeyer, Marcelo Jaimes-Lukes, Ian Johnson, Cameron Kerr

Presented in the Wallace Theater at the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University  view full recording 
2019, April Daily meditations held at an temporary indoors flower garden. The mediation aimed to awken the senses through a variety of interactions with flowers.  view images 
2019, March A concrete slab is dragged around the space, with intermittent rest periods.  view video excerpts 
2019, January 24 hours of writing down spacial observations, on Thursday, January 3rd, 2019.  view text   view recording 
2017, Spring Two performances:
Grapefruit (7 minutes), created in March 2017
Nutella (8 minutes), created in May 2017

Creation: Jhor van der Horst
Performance: Joshua Dolphin, Jhor van der Horst, and Naomi Lake  view video excerpts   view full recording   view poem 
2016, March Creation: Jhor van der Horst, in collaboration with performers
Performers: Raven Taisce White, Glenna Yu, William Keiser
Lighting, Set and Sound design: Jhor van der Horst
Set consultant: Wesley Cornwell

The work is structured using different approached to the performers' agency and improvisational licence; one part is set and rehearsed movement, another part is a curated yet unspecified movement, and the last part is a free improvisation. This work is inspired by Herman Kruyder's triptych "Pan" (1931).

Presented in the Hagan Dance Studio at the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University  view video excerpts   view full recording 
Jhor van der Horst (b. 1997 in Utrecht, NL - he/him) is an artist and researcher based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. With a history in concert dance, he is principally interested in meditiated bodies: staged bodies, living bodies, and plant(ed) plants. Past year, with the support of artist residencies at OT301, Plantage Dok and others places, van der Horst developed a solo performance titled “Duckweed; or, I Am Making Plan(t)s.” Through improvised storytelling and guided meditations, this work brings to the foreground human-plants relationships, and its many intimate co-constitutive entanglements. Influential mentors/advisors are Martha Friedman, Susan Marshall, Brian Herrera and Miguel Gutierrez. In 2020, Van der Horst received a BA in Art & Archaeology from Princeton University. Upon graduation, he received Princeton's Sudler Prize, which is one of the Lewis Center for the Arts' highest student distinctions. Currently, he is enrolled in the University of Amsterdam’s Artistic Research rMA program.

Concepts which Jhor often revisits are: space making, ritual practice, speech acts, practice, embodiment, improvisation, consent, attention, misrecognition, embodied knowledge, memory, reperformance, patience, softness, plants/vegetal, cultivation, and cohabitation.
 download resume   download portfolio 
Jhor van der Horst
e: contact@jhorvanderhorst.nl
t: +31 6 2371 8688
w: https://jhorvanderhorst.nl
Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Jhor van der Horst