emotional days ahead

Next unexpected project : these six chairs will be altered and decorated by eight friends. Not for the Circus School this time, but for a very sad occasion. Have to dive into the studio, make space for everyone, myself included, we have to finish it this week. So I guess I won't have time to do some proper blogging; hope to be back at the end of the week.

back on monday

a short one

Preparing the house for guests, we're having a birthday party on saturday. Very little time to spend on the computer, but I really need to sit down for five minutes. I've been running up and down the stairs all morning. Moving furniture to have more room, the weather is too tricky to assume we will be outdoors all the time. And my ... what does one find behind furniture that hasn't been moved for a long time. Well, the smallest room is ready. There is still the dining room, the living room, the TV room, the last room (that is what we call the room next to the living room - another sitting room with a wood stove we might need then), the kitchen, the bathroom upstairs and three guestrooms. I forgot, the area to sit outside too. No, I did not start too late, but I always get the best ideas in the end.

Rob Voerman - archaic way of building

The sculptures of Rob Voerman seduced me immediately when I saw them at Art Brussels 2008. It's like being in a different world when you look into his archaic cabins built with coloured glass and broken pieces of wood. I really wish I could see them in an appropriate environment instead of an Art Fair. My pictures don't reveal the wonder of the structures. Here is the artists statement.

3d wall panel in the chair project

Chinese porcelain - Huang Yan

Mao

Huang Yan
Huang Yan is actually a Chinese painter who's preferred medium is the human body. I quite liked this bust at Art Brussels 2008.

don't have much time today, we're off to a Jazz-festival ... again

Arne Reynaert - studio revisited

It is always a pleasure to visit the gorgeous studio of Arne Reynaert. The artist is very productive, so there are always many new works to discover.

pictures taken during Kunstroute-Leuven 2008 Open Studio Tour.

UPDATE 16 november 2009 : latest visit to the studio HERE, Use the 'Search this Blog' tool to view all posts on Arne Reynaert.

haven't seen these in a long time

visiting a friend the other day, this is how she displays two of the columns I made.

what to do with books after reading them - Jonathan Callan

After reading a book, I can't throw it away. But I'm not the kind of person to build a bookshelf to keep books that will never be opened again. So I thought the book-sculptures of Jonathan Callan are simply brilliant.

I simply fell in love with these works when I saw them at the Brussels Art Fair 2008. It certainly gives me ideas.

I could not find a direct link to Jonathan Callan, but Googling his name will take you to several galleries that exhibit and sell his works.
It is worth checking a few, the walls build with books are stunning. HERE is one.




related post:
a-propos-d'écritures

Bram Vreven makes water dance

" What shapes can water in motion assume? Which forces are at work in the creation of ripples, currents, and waves? Are these patterns of movement chaotic, or can a certain order be imposed? Is it possible to make that singularly elegant ripple occur again? Can some patterns be reproduced or even cloned? In the search for answers I built a variety of test configurations, which all revolve around the possibilities of water in motion."

Bram Vreven

Flow II

Panels containing water move and tilt, making various patterns and creating gorgeous visual effects with the flowing water. Have a look at the site of artist Bram Vreven, look for works - Flow II (and the others too off course). Unfortunately it only shows the tilting of the panels and not the dancing figures of the water. I looked at this work for about 10 min, it was hard to walk away. Looking at water flowing is very calming and relaxing, and this was pretty spectacular.

pictures taken at the Verbeke Foundation

something cheerful ...

... after yesterday's post. One needs a balance between serious and not so serious.
and this is ... not so serious






in the Good Mood Gallery - the latest version - the murals - this one is called Beach Pavilions

a moment of reflection - Roger Claessens

United Battlefield Cemetery - Victims of Fate

Roger Claessens

A work that impressed me. Even though I know that no-one is actually buried here, it is an emotional place to walk through. From a distance it looks like an old overgrown graveyard. Looking at the tombstones you realize that they mention victims from all over the globe, from all kinds of wars, uprises, ... from all eras. By the names on the stones you can tell friend from foe, but still ..., all of them are victims of fate.
Golan, Atlantic Ocean, Little Big Horn, Gettysburg, Gallipolli, Groeningekouter, Nadjaf, Sumatra, Sarajevo, Toledo, Bronkhorstspruit, Ieper, Jeruzalem, Austerlitz, Verdun, Vukovar, Isonzo, Dien Bien Phu, Stalingrad, the Alamo, Seoul, Bastille, Bruxelles, Cuzco, Passchendaele, Waterloo, Madrid, Normandie, Hue, Eritrea, Eben-Emael, ... and many more.
And I realize many more stones will be added in the future ... many more victims.

----------

I like to visit old cemeteries. I mean old, with graves so old that the people inside of them are remembered by no-one as all the ones that could remember them are gone too. In Australia (and I guess in many other places too), the peculiar thing about the ghost towns - from the gold- and silver rush era - is that the only thing still remaining is most likely the cemetery. Most of the tombs are anonymous, and in the homeland many relatives must have wondered what became of their son, brother, ... trying to build a better life. The battlefield cemeteries in Flanders are overpowering sad places, all these young and promising lives lost, be it the enemy or not. I still get tears in my eyes when I think of such terrible waste.
Walking around in these places I imagine I can feel some of the hope and despair. And I realize that no matter how different we all are, what our belief or conviction is, after the last breath everyone is equal again.

related post

Roger Claessens at Tempus Arti 2012

Reinier Lagendijk - land art, living sculptures

A ficus is planted in a wooden mold. After a few years the mold will be removed.
What is left is a solid table (or a chair) formed by the roots of the plant.

A wooden frame of a small house has partially been constructed with living trees.

I love what Reinier Lagendijk does with living material; it is so intriguing how he grows things in an awkward way. The building of living ladders is shown in this 12 min. video, and have a look at his upside down growing tree.

pictures taken at the Verbeke Foundation, the last one with the phone-cam as the batteries of the camera died

Jeroen Kuster - new animal species

Deepstaria

Jeroen Kuster

Interested in the world of animals since childhood, the artist has created a new species. Kuster shows us what look like simple fish or other animals, in all forms and sizes. But Kusters' animals never existed. He uses plastic spoons or other anorganic material which he transforms by melting them into shapes. He says "Cooking with material is making Art".

Pictures taken at the Verbeke Foundation, but the works are only visible to the female visitors. On display at the women lavatories (yes, I did open every door to take a picture of the works). I did not go into the gents' bathroom to see the works there.

Vision in Motion - Motion in Vision

more kinetic art - current exhibition

at the Verbeke Foundation

It is the first time I came here for an exhibition, and I was quite surprised. The place is huge; an old industrial site with large silos and greenhouses set on a large block of land. So all of the works pictured below are moving in some kind of way. It was impossible to take videos of all of them, my batteries of the camera died.

Sybill's Mental Energy Collector

Weyers & Borms

(yes, the same ones that have design furniture at the Designmuseum exhibition)

Weyers & Borms

Reinier Kranendonk

Bjoern Schuelke

Reinier Kranendonk

I missed the information here and can't find it. A plaster figure of Christ hangs upside down on a very long rope and moves slowly back and forth on a concrete floor thus wearing off.

Pol Bury

Astronaut

G. De Beer & P. Van Hoeydonk

in the background work from Jean Tinguely

Martin uit den Bogaard

The artist himself asks what the difference is between life and death. Death material is still undergoing changes, he captures these electric impulses and connects them to a computer that translates these into sound and colourful graphics. This artist has many works on the site. Very interesting, but if you're a very sensitive person I would recommend to skip this part or send someone else in to see if you can take it.

And the most poetic one is from Sjef Meijman, a small pebble is dragged in a very slow pace through sand on a metal board and creates this rusty circle. Between all the rattling and shaking and wobbling and noisy works, this was a piece of tranquility. What people call Zen. I think I could have this in my house, I just love it (but then I'm a pebble and stone person).
and many many more to see ...
Painting and singing fingerInflatable DollDeception
Mean Meat Machine
Black Boy balancing between Benevolence and the Benefits of Blasphemy