Giel Louws | The Loyalty Of Objects 1
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Giel Louws | The Loyalty Of Objects | 17/11/’18 - 17/01/'19 ruimteCAESUUR | Lange Noordstraat 67 | 4331 CC Middelburg www.caesuur.nu | caesuur@zeelandnet.nl K.v.K. 4111439 | NL43 INGB 0002 6695 59
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content at the opening of the exhibition | Willy van Houtum | 17-11-2018 images exhibition Giel Louws | The Loyalty Of Objects colophon
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at the opening of the exhibition of Giel Louws Willy van Houtum | 17-11-2018 5
When Giel passes by and his backpack looks a bit bulky, then it’s party time again. The newest addition to his collection can be viewed, felt, sniffed and admired. And Giel tells the story that goes with it. Period, oven, dynasty, kind of glaze and how he got it. Some pieces could have been made by a top designer yesterday, others are crackling again, others are so thin and subtle that you can almost see through them. All these pieces feel like an extension of Giel. In addition to his extensive knowledge, by looking, searching, studying, restoring, the process of collecting feels very organic. As if Giel and these objects belong together. Just like what you experience in his studio, all the works are organically connected to Giel. The work feels as if no intensive process has preceded it. Asif there was no thought, doubt, experiment, sweat and toiled. As if the development line of the work is very subtle and takes place naturally. The work does not open immediately, but must be viewed, sniffed and finally admired. I experience the same amazement when I see Giel’s work and the pieces from his collection. Wonder and the feeling of arriving. This has now to be present in this moment
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to supplement the collection and the oeuvre. I do not know how the collection and the oeuvre influences each other, but I know that they are both part of who Giel is as a person.
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Giel Louws | The Loyalty Of Objects The sky blue porcelain bowl is thin and is carved with a pattern of flowers and two boys. It has been in my apartment since 2005, but it has been loyal to his owners for 800 years. Since its creation it has hardly changed, untoucha-ble in his vulnerability. It is an object to which I keep returning, and it always stays where I left it. I surround myself with things that represent an order that compensates for the chaos of daily life. These objects confirm me, my choices, my knowledge, and taste. Collecting is an intelli-gent and creative process, a process of sophisticated choices. This description of the collection is in many ways the same process as in my studio. Perhaps it is an ideal description of my aim as an artist; create work that is untouchable in its vulnerability. Craftsmanship is a way of making radical choices, a sort of gathering with high dedication. In the studio I am also surrounded by a collection; my own oeuvre. Yet this collection does not exude for me the tran-quility that the ceramics have in it. The collection in the studio is too much connected to my own life. Every work carries the traces of who I was at that moment. I feel a responsibility and a certain pressure with this collection. The ceramics will find its own way after me, and the work that I made has to be a place for itself. 17
ceramics will find its own way after me, and the work that I made has to be a place for itself. This exhibition focuses on the similarities between the two. The two collections together reveal something about myself. For this exhibition I looked at the vulnerability and aesthetics of things, and expose them as well as possible. I put a number of pieces from my collection of paper models that symbolize these pieces. They are a kind of dra-wings of how I had preserved the ceramics in my head. The displays try to reveal something about looking and knowing. What they ask is a patient look, to charge them as the sky-blue porcelain bowl is also loaded. It is a subtle dance of things.
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colophon concept & exhibition | Giel Louws text opening | Willy van Houtum tekst exhibition | Giel Louws photos exhibition ruimteCAESUUR | Giel Louws photo opening | Hans Overvliet calalogue | Hans Overvliet teamCAESUUR | Willy van Houtum | Giel Louws | Dani Ploeger | Hans Overvliet
thanks to de vrolijke aandeelhouders & dito vrienden van CAESUUR | de gemeente Middelburg studio ZagaZ belettering | Kattendijke / Drucker Stichting | Familiefonds Hurgronje Frits Lensvelt Stichting knowledge partner of het Metamorfose Lokaal | UCR
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www.caesuur.nu 20