I have no idea what the best translation is, but it more or less covers the - dutch - title of this brandnew book released the day before yesterday.
SCHITTERENDE ROTZOOI UPCYCLE!
by Jan Van Craesbeeck (grafic designer and passionate recycling artist) and Lil Meert (photographer)
The first time I saw Jan Van Craesbeeck's delightful junk sculptures was quite some years ago during the first Kunstroute-Leuven, a local art tour. I didn't take pictures back then, my digital camera came much later.
During the opening of the Upcycling Festival at CREAZI (mentionned in previous post) we had the opportunity to see most of the artist's work again. The conditions to make decent photos were not so good, here's a tiny selection of Jan's exquisite little creatures.
The Upcycling Festival at CREAZI was the perfect moment to launch his book. It shows, apart from many artworks by the author and artist himself, various other artists from all over the world working with discarded materials. Encounters with unique personalities, art brut artists in the original sense of the word (by Dubuffet), designers of one of a kind interiors and furniture. All with one thing in common : the use of waste, junk, trash, rubbish...
To my astonishement I find myself pictured in the book...
There was this photoshoot so many months ago but nothing was heard from it since so I thought the whole thing was blown off or this project didn't fit in the book. Well there it is, the beautiful Arbus Reïnc, the tree built with reclaimed timber from the roof of our renovated barn.
The tree that needs to guard our fallen appletree hit by a storm almost two years ago now but still alive. And although the tree was my idea and concept, built with our material and built in our orchard I never could have built it without the help of
Clemens Maassen. He is the architect of Arbus Reïnc, technique and design are his contributions.
I'm enjoying the sunday afternoon reading inspiring stories about people with a passion: turning unwanted objects into treasures.
Jan Van Craesbeeck
Lil Meert
Uitgeverij De Draak
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