Peter Morrens / James Castle

James Castle

cas10-0001

22 x 26 cm  recto/verso

from : James Castle, Show and Store 

Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid ( 2011)

DOUBLE BIND 2020

James Castle, a deaf-mute and unskilled artist from Idaho (USA) made beautiful, intense drawings of his rural surroundings all his life: mostly barns and attics in complex perspectives. He made his drawings with coaldust from his stove mixed with his saliva, mostly on found paper. He often populated the barns with his own drawings and with 'friends', drawn schematic figures.

In a run down barn in Diepenheim (NL) I made the installation 'Lichtwit': three wall-filling trompe-l'oeil's of open drawings, painted directly on the wall: full drawings of blank pages. You could look at the installation through a window in the fourth wall while standing on a small podium. The viewer became an integral part of the work.

The repro's come from catalogs: the place where we had most encounters with works of art in the 20th century. Both choices play with duplicity: Castle's drawings are on both sides of the paper. My drawing is a renewed 'cover' drawing, based on the original in situ installation (2014).

Peter Morrens, 2020

Peter Morrens (BE)

Covers

lichtwit, 2014

'ik tel 37 tekeningen, ik had er 52 verwacht'

posture editions no 10, 2014 

http://petermorrens.com

rk

Charlotte Besuijen / Colijn de Nole

Colijn de Nole

Tomb of Brederode 

c.1540-1556

Avender sandstone, Baumberger sandstone, hardstone, wood 

388 x 450,3 x 328 cm 

Grote Kerk, Vianen NL

Tomb of Brederode, fragment

Baumberger sandstone

Grote Kerk, Vianen NL

The Brederode chapel of the church in Vianen contains the tomb of Reinoud III van Brederode (†1556) and Philippote van der Marck (†1536). The Brederode grave monument is an example of a memento mori monument: the recumbent effigies depict Reinoud and Philippote as if they had recently died, in stark contrast to the single transi below it, which depicts a deceased person in an advanced state of decomposition. In the Middle Ages, this type of monument was often designed to remind the passersby of the transience and vanity of earthly life, as well as to instil confidence in resurrection.

In the lecture ‘Subjective Histories of Sculpture’ Lucy Skaer also speaks about a transi tomb, namely that of John de Arundel (†1435). Skaer adds an extra phase to the "stages" of the monument by including the mortal remains, which are under the tomb and out of sight, in her observation:

“The tomb can be read from top to bottom; the diminishment of the person from recent death through the transitional macabre decomposition to the actual remains. Or from the bottom to the top; from the corpse to the enduring object of the person as he or she was in life.”

This is different in the Brederode monument. After all, there is only one transi on the grave monument, while there are two effigies on the top plate. Thus the transi is not a representation of the bodies of the couple themselves, but a general representation of impermanence. As passersby we cannot relate to an experience of death, but the monument does reveal the mutability of death.

In my work Transi each of the drawings after the initial one follows on from the one before. As such the work knows several stages. Together, these nine drawings create a space that spans time and encapsulates transience and transformation.

With special thanks to Margreet and Hans Kluit on behalf of the Grote Kerk Vianen.

Charlotte Besuijen, 2020

Charlotte Besuijen (NL)

Transi 

2020

graphite and papier-mâché on paper, wood

100 x 293 x 270 cm

on display at: RuimteCAESUUR, Middelburg NL

www.charlottebesuijen.com

rk