Monday, September 27, 2010
Maid in LLand
Starting from 23 September, the exhibition continues through to Thursday October 14th.
Address:
OneBigAgency and Studio320PK
Herengracht 320
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Opening hours : Monday through Saturday 11am-6pm
Tel: +31 20 5218756
Made in Lland (Artist’s Statement)
My mind (Reason) says no, my Imagination screams “..and yes I said yes I will Yes."
Thus, I adopt the most famous utterance generated by my own race, the final words from James Joyce’s 'Ulysses', and pillage the masters of my adopted host (Vermeer, Van Gogh, and Rembrandt), hopefully combining Lyricism and Pragmatism, and generating an idea, and a plan, to reinvigorate the Silk Route between the City State of LLand and the People’s Republic of Ina.
By insinuating a note, written to himself in 1914, the Artist/Chess-master Marcel Duchamp, in a self-admonition, even - spawned a philosophy proffering the possibility of the Universal Equality of All Matter and Anti-Matter.
I am taken to a land of limitless possibilities and imaginative leaps, kaleidoscoping time and place, and choosing to ignore all boundaries. The note said simply:
“To use a Rembrandt as an ironing board”.
This pithy statement could lead to nihilistic despair or it could lead in the other direction entirely. I choose the latter.
"..perhaps it will be the task of an artist as detached from aesthetic preoccupations and as intent on the energetic as Marcel Duchamp, to reconcile art and the people."
Guillaume Apollinaire , Les Peintre Cubistes (published 1913).
This exhibition is the beginning of a foray into that realm, the notion of, through the prism of Duchamp’s statement, initially introducing that most impressive manifestation of the collective consciousness, China, to three of the most venerated Individuals of the Western (Dutch) Canon, through the commonplace vehicle of Duchamp’s ironing board.
‘Maid in Lland’ represents the first phase of this endeavour; the journey of developing Pragma and the Rembrandt board itself. The show collapses time and visualises the painting of the boards in Dafen, a township on the Chinese mainland totally devoted to the copying of European masterpieces.
The second and third phases, the Vermeer and Van Gogh boards, have already been developed over six years, in 4,000 images on the Internet. This body of work presented here has been drawn from that same source.
The ‘story’ is interwoven with personal details, of self-love recovered after a history of abuse; these chart an individuation process which has proceeded to the point where I can say, with confidence, that anything is possible.
If a pinch of spice or a tulip bulb could generate a ‘Golden Age’, then anything can - even a Duchamp ironing board. It is simply a matter of determined people, who believe this is possible, coming together and focussing on pushing it through - with some humour and beauty.
All of these ideas and works generated are copyright free, so that anyone can use any of it, without fear of litigation. I would be more than pleased, indebted even, if anyone can take any of these ideas further.
Address:
OneBigAgency and Studio320PK
Herengracht 320
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Opening hours : Monday through Saturday 11am-6pm
Tel: +31 20 5218756
My mind (Reason) says no, my Imagination screams “..and yes I said yes I will Yes."
Thus, I adopt the most famous utterance generated by my own race, the final words from James Joyce’s 'Ulysses', and pillage the masters of my adopted host (Vermeer, Van Gogh, and Rembrandt), hopefully combining Lyricism and Pragmatism, and generating an idea, and a plan, to reinvigorate the Silk Route between the City State of LLand and the People’s Republic of Ina.
By insinuating a note, written to himself in 1914, the Artist/Chess-master Marcel Duchamp, in a self-admonition, even - spawned a philosophy proffering the possibility of the Universal Equality of All Matter and Anti-Matter.
I am taken to a land of limitless possibilities and imaginative leaps, kaleidoscoping time and place, and choosing to ignore all boundaries. The note said simply:
“To use a Rembrandt as an ironing board”.
This pithy statement could lead to nihilistic despair or it could lead in the other direction entirely. I choose the latter.
"..perhaps it will be the task of an artist as detached from aesthetic preoccupations and as intent on the energetic as Marcel Duchamp, to reconcile art and the people."
Guillaume Apollinaire , Les Peintre Cubistes (published 1913).
This exhibition is the beginning of a foray into that realm, the notion of, through the prism of Duchamp’s statement, initially introducing that most impressive manifestation of the collective consciousness, China, to three of the most venerated Individuals of the Western (Dutch) Canon, through the commonplace vehicle of Duchamp’s ironing board.
‘Maid in Lland’ represents the first phase of this endeavour; the journey of developing Pragma and the Rembrandt board itself. The show collapses time and visualises the painting of the boards in Dafen, a township on the Chinese mainland totally devoted to the copying of European masterpieces.
The second and third phases, the Vermeer and Van Gogh boards, have already been developed over six years, in 4,000 images on the Internet. This body of work presented here has been drawn from that same source.
The ‘story’ is interwoven with personal details, of self-love recovered after a history of abuse; these chart an individuation process which has proceeded to the point where I can say, with confidence, that anything is possible.
If a pinch of spice or a tulip bulb could generate a ‘Golden Age’, then anything can - even a Duchamp ironing board. It is simply a matter of determined people, who believe this is possible, coming together and focussing on pushing it through - with some humour and beauty.
All of these ideas and works generated are copyright free, so that anyone can use any of it, without fear of litigation. I would be more than pleased, indebted even, if anyone can take any of these ideas further.
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