20th CENTURY NOSTALGIA

Nothing out-dates as quick as a vision of the future.

A new series of wall mounted editions.

'20th Century Nostalgia (Roswell)' (2015)

'20th Century Nostalgia (Plan 9)' (2016)

'20th Century Nostalgia (Adamski)' (2016)

INTELLIGENCE

At the moment I am finishing a commisioned sculpture for Remedy Pharmaceuticals. It will be for their new office in New York. It will be titled 'Intelligence'

In the meantime one of my oldest sculptures is still on show in the exhibition 'Magritte Meets The Collection' in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The curator has made some very interesting choices ...
See earlier post.
The exhibition lasts until January 17th 2016.

'Intelligence' (2015)

LE MIRROIR VIVANT

Images from the exhibition 'Le Mirroir Vivant / Magritte Meets The Collection' in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

with works by Christopher Wool, Cady Noland, René Magritte, Man Ray, Bert Sissingh, Sigurdur Gudmundson, ClaesOldenburgh, Dan Flavin, Barbara Hepworth, Yayoi Kusama, Duane Hanson, Paul McCarthy, Jim Shaw, Wim T. Schippers, Roy Lichtenstein, Francis Picabia and some more ...

 

LOST MESSAGE

'Lost Message #1' (2015)

20TH CENTURY NOSTALGIA (RADIO FLYER)

'20th Century Nostalgia (Radio Flyer)' - sketch

UNIDENTIFIED CENSORED OBJECT

'Unidentified Censored Object' (2014)

On show in Museum Kranenburgh, Bergen NH, the Netherlands.
link

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Older designs reworked: Kirk and Spock on Smartphones.

'Back To The Future' (2007-2014)

UCO II

'Study for UCO - II' (2013)

UCO

'Study for UCO - I' (2013)

Overtaken by the Future

In some of my work I speculate on 'hot' phenomena to dissolve and disappear in the future; for example we all know YouTube isn't going to last forever.

Some phenomena disappear quicker then expected.

The work titled '20th Century Nostalgia (Slapstick)' combined a very 20th century phenomenon with an image very much part of 'now'. That 'now' will definitely be part of histroy soon.

Slapstick can not be seen apart from the first era of motion picture history. Although it is still very popular in contemporary comedy, slapstick will always be associated with the movies from the 1920's and 30's.

At this moment most of us use Facebook as a social tool. We all use the 'like' button several times a day, but the famous 'thumbs up' will disappear in the near future. An icon will disappear, as most of the Facebook users associate the 'thumb' and 'like'.

The work titled '20th Century Nostalgia (Slapstick)' in consequence should be retitled '20th & 21st Century Nostalgia (Slapstick)' ... but, well I think I'll just leave it as it is for now.

'20th Century Nostalgia (Slapstick)'

T65 ON SHOW

New sculpture on show in Pictura, in Dordrecht: '20th Century Nostalgia (T65)'

On the wall drawings from the 'Boys R Us' series by Ronald Cornelissen.
See this post.

A HISTORY OF TEXT MESSAGING

'Rendezvous (A History Of Text Messaging)' (2013)
45x50x30cm

On show last weekend in Hotel Bloom, Brussels as part of Trajector Intermezzo: Single Occupancy & Double Dates.

I PIXEL YOUR LOUNGE, YOU PIXEL MINE

Trajector Intermezzo: Single Occupancy & Double Dates

 

In the Lounge of Hotel Bloom (left to right):
'Christine' (2013), '21st Century Nostalgia (Penguin)' (2012), '20th Century Nostalgia (Pall Mall)' (2011), 'Bazooka' (2012)

CHRISTINE

'Christine' (2013)
147x76x11cm

MARGARETHA

'Margaretha' (2013)
119x87x11cm

In a new series of femmes fatales this is Margaretha or to be precise: Margaretha 'Griet' Zelle aka Mata Hari. Based upon a handcolored photograph from about 1900 when Mata Hari was in her prime as an exotic/erotic artist.

The series femmes fatales focuses on the 'blurry' world of eroticism and (political) power.
The resulting pixel-sculptures seem to represent the classic pin-up rather then the specific historical persons.

RUDE SCULPTURE

'Rude Sculpture (Scheiß Skulptur)' (2013)

Another exercise in censored imagery: what we are (not) allowed to see and what we chose to ignore.

UNTIRED

During Car Art Festival (in Delft, the Netherlands) the installation 'Untired' can be seen in the weekend of 8 and 9 september 2012.

'Messenger I' (2009)

'Art-Freshner' (2011)

'Rule Of Thumb' (2012)

RAW SHOW CASES

Another project by Bob Smit. RAW SHOW CASES converts the display windows of the former bank building of ABN-AMRO Bank at the Coolsingel in Rotterdam into gallery space. Young galleries show work of their artists in these windows. Gallery WILMA! selected '21st Century Neoclassicism (Have A Nice Day!)' to smile upon the going by shoppers, snackers, sippers and ice cream lickers.
Looks pretty nice ...

RAW SHOW CASES, Coolsingel, Rotterdam

Central Station, Rotterdam

During the 2012 edition of Poetry International Rotterdam several art exhibitions involving language are being organized. They can all be found in the Language & ART Gallery Tour.

In Rotterdam CS, in the midst of it's transition into a new modern train station,  the exhibition Wachten = Verlangen (trans. Waiting = Longing) takes place. On each platform a work of art can be found.

Track 14 finds the sculpture 'Modern Classic (bl**p)' placed high upon one of the remaining elevator shafts of the old station building designed by Sybold van Ravesteyn.

'Modern Classic (bl**p)' (2012)

(Sybold Van Ravesteyn is best known for his designs from the late 1930's and early 1940's that didn't conform to the formal modernist movement. The Rotterdam Zoo Blijdorp (1939-41) and the theatre hall in Dordrecht (1938) are the best examples of his playful use of slightly kitschy Baroque elements.
In the late 1940's and throughout the 1950's Van Ravesteyn designed many railway stations for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Rotterdam Central Station was one of the last main station buildings by Van Ravesteyn, now being demolished and replaced. Benthem Crouwel are the architects of the new CS.)

Bazooka

The 'pixel-sculptures' translate 2D digital pixelated images to 3D objects. In general they deal with censorship and what we are not allowed or (on the other hand) do not want to see. Besides that they show the transformative state of material objects and ideas in time.

'20th Century Sediment (Bazooka)' (2012)

'20th Century Sediment (Bazooka)' represents a popular teenage culture consumer product introduced in the last century: bubble gum. Popular as it still is, it is one of those phenomena that is probably bound to disappear. The stains of flattened chewing gum in the pavement will be puzzling remains for future archeologists.