Sculpture

….

Sent, Filed, Aborted

….

Inkjet print on paper, graphological analyses, picture mat, vitrine in spray painted MDF

21 x 29,7 cm (each), vitrine: 67 x 62,5 x 90 cm

2013/2014

….

Vitrine built with the kind assistance of Adam Grinovich

…

This work consists of six inkjet prints mounted with a picture mat in a custom-built vitrine. The three sheets of A4-paper in the top row are facsimiles of handwritten letters by Asger Jorn, Constant Nieuwenhuys and Hans-Peter Zimmer obtained from the archives of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The three sheets in the bottom row are psychological profiles developed by American graphologist Eileen M. Page based on the handwriting in the three letters. The letters pertain to the planning of an exhibition with the situationists at the Stedelijk in 1960 (which was cancelled due to disagreements between the museum and the artists, notably over the situationists’ wish to penetrate a wall in the museum building and their refusal to conform to the institution’s fire regulations). The letters are all addressed to Willem Sandberg, former director of the Stedelijk Museum.

…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…

Translations of the letters:

…

Asger Jorn (top left):

….

Dear Dir. Sandberg,

After thinking I am more and more surprised by the behaviour of San Lazzaro and his offer for an article for “The 20th Century”. His attitude and his maneuvers displease me more and I decided to refuse to do a publication in his journal.
I hope you agree with me and that we bury the project.

Friendly greetings,

Asger Jorn

Click here to read the analysis of Asger Jorn’s handwriting by graphologist Eileen M. Page

Constant Nieuwenhuys (top middle):

Dear Mister Sandberg,

For working [to work] out a plan for the Situationist Show coming May I would like to hear which rooms are available for this, and, if possible, to receive a floor plan of those rooms.

Yours sincerely,

Constant

Click here to read the analysis of Constant Nieuwenhuys’ handwriting by graphologist Eileen M. Page

…

Hans-Peter Zimmer / Gruppe Spur (top right):

Dear Mr. Director Sandberg,

We’ve heard that the situationists Debord and Jorn are in Amsterdam. Because we don’t have their addresses, we would like to ask you to hand over the attached letter to either one of the situationists, seeing as the situationists are preparing the labyrinth and you surely must be in contact with them

Sincerely Gruppe Spur, München,

signed Zimmer

Click here to read the analysis of Hans Peter-Zimmer’s handwriting by graphologist Eileen M. Page

….

Please click the thumbnails below for additional images of single pages.

…

[nggallery id=39]

….

…

….

Ceremony

Collaboration with Sus Soddu

Lightweight polyester fabric, wooden box in spray painted MDF

82x139cm / 86x144x9 cm

2014

Installation view from the group exhibition Soft Measures at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, April 2014

Wooden box made with the kind assistance of Adam Grinovich

The textile work Ceremony (2014) – which is made in collaboration with Swedish costume designer Sus Soddu – is based on the flag-folding custom reserved for the US military’s official memorials and funerals. In this particular take on the military ritual, fourteen pieces of fabric identical in size record each of the steps of the ceremonial folding procedure and have sub-
sequently been sewn together as a life-size, step-by-step flag-folding manual. Although based on the ceremonial folding procedure for the flag of the United States, the final product is made in a monochrome lightweight fabric designed for utility clothing and presented as a piece of abstract soft sculpture. Nevertheless, the collaborative work is underpinned by allusions to a ritualized treatment of fabrics of mythological and symbolic significance.

……

……….

….

…..

Propaganda Arrangement (white)

Oil based spray paint and powdered graphite on MDF, tilted plinth,
plastic bag, styrofoam pellets (not shown)

100 x 70 cm / 32 x 32 x 100 cm

2014

Installation view from the solo exhibition Some General Thoughts on Wreckage at Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, May 2014

Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen

The text reproduced in powdered graphite on the MDF board is a typographical replica of a poster distributed by The Mission Yuppie Eradication Project in San Fransisco. The heading of the poster SOON TO BE PICTUREESQUE RUINS! is in turn an English translation of a political slogan which was heavily graffitied during the May 1968 (Ici, bientôt, de charmantes ruines). The Mission Yuppie Eradication Project was a grassroots movement dedicated to impeding the gentrification of San Fransico’s Mission district in the in the late 1990s which advocated a hands-on, bull-by-the-horns approach to keep newcomers from the upper classes from displacing the poorer residents of the Mission.
…

…..

…

Mémoires (failed remake)

Chlorine on dyed felt, shaft of pool cue

Textile: 150 x 300 cm, Pool cue: 75 cm, Ø = 2 cm

2013

Installation view from the solo exhibition Some General Thoughts on Wreckage at Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, May 2014

Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen

The large piece of bleached felt is the end result of a futile attempt to reconstruct the paint drips from Guy Debord and Asger Jorn’s artist book Mémoires(1959) with drips of bleach on black felt. The performative painting session lasted for two weeks and a satisfactorily precise reproduction of the drips in the artist’s book proved to be so difficult that in the end the black textile was completely soaked in bleach, resulting in the cloth more or less turning into a brown monochrome. The shaft of the pool cue was dipped in a bottle of chlorine and used as a tool for directing the drips in the making of the work.

Please click the thumbnails below for additional images.

…..

[nggallery id=37]

….

Barely Historical Object

Oil-based spray paint on deformed traffic barrier

84 x 98 x 6 cm

2014

Installation view from the solo exhibition Some General Thoughts on Wreckage at Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, May 2014

……

Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen

….

…

…………

BUILT BY AN IDIOT FULL OF SOUND AND FURY SIGNIFYING NOTHING

Lacquer on restored wooden bollards, plastic construction netting, LP record,
spraypainted traffic barrier, coloured adhesive plastic, wooden shelf

Variable dimensions

2013

Photo: Johanna Wulff

This sculptural arrangement consists in large part of restored traffic regulators appropriated from roadwork and car crash sites on the intersection of Avenue Van Volxem/Avenue Wielemans Ceuppens in Brussels, Belgium. On the wooden shelf is a copy of Section 25’s 1984 album From the Hip, the sleeve of which was designed by Peter Saville and contains text written in Saville’s colour coded alphabet. On the backside of the spraypainted metal barrier to the left is a multicoloured pattern which spells out the incomplete sentence BUILT BY AN IDIOT FULL OF SOUND AND FURY SIGNIFYING NOTHING written with coloured adhesive plastic in Saville’s hieroglyphic alphabet (pictured below). The incomplete sentence is a double reference to one of Macbeth’s soliloquies in the eponymous play by William Shakespeare and to Guy Debord’s critique of Georges- Eugène Hussmann’s planning interventions in Paris in the eighteenth century.

Please click the thumbnails below for additional images.

……[nggallery id=29]..
……

…………..
…… ……..

……

……..

Beach Detector

………..

Painted MDF, light switch, plexiglass, power drill and electrical cord

50 x 50 x 100 cm

2012

Built with the kind assistance of Adam Grinovich and Björn Aneer

Installation view from the group exhibition Game of Life, Kristiansand Kunsthall, Kristiansand, Norway, September 2012

Photo: Studio LL

This work uses the somewhat mysterious 1968 slogan Sous les pavés, la plage! (Under the paving-stones, the beach!) as a starting point. The mechanical sculpture consists of a spraypainted wooden plinth with an integrated power drill which can be activated by flicking the light switch on the top of the plinth. A heavy-duty drill bit spinning at full throttle but slightly hovering over the gallery floor can be seen through the plexiglass case at the bottom.

…………….

Please click the thumbnails below to see some sketches and research material related to the project.

………

[nggallery id=26]

……

……..

…..

Forever Pubescent

Deformed spraypainted traffic barrier

84 x 98 x 6 cm

2013

Installation view from the group exhibition MONIKA STRICKER at CAB Art Centre, Brussels, September 2013.

…….

Photo courtesy of CAB Art Centre, Brussels