cover page
Vlissingen, Art Fair Pop-up the Machine
October 25, 2024 | Photo Courtesy of ©Bo de Jong hans
www.hansovervliet.com
Make something. Find a use for it.
AND / OR Invent a function.
Find an object.
One thing working one way
Another thing working another way.
One thing working different ways at different times. Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.
" " " " " "
Jasper Johns
1965 | in Catalogue Raisonné of Drawing
the tale of the bullet
DISTANT SUFFERING XXXX | i.d. of an artist's video portrait utterly endlessly repurposed naive incantation gesture
DISTANT SUFFERING XXXXV | i.d. of a shared gold-plated bullet variations I, II, III ( in production )
DISTANT SUFFERING XXXXVI | i.d. of the shared tale of a bullet difference and repetition
DISTANT SUFFERING XXXXVII | i.d. an incased bullet – multiple
DISTANT SUFFERING LIII | i.d. of a solidified bullet – multiple ( in production )
w o r k s
i.d. of an artist's video portrait- the video utterly endlessly repurposed naive incantation gesture
co-production Hans Overvliet & Jochem Weststrate
i.d. of an encased bullet - multiple w o r d s colophon page 06 page 12 page 16 page 18 page 25 page 27
i.d. of shared a gold-plated bullet
i.d. of the shared tale of a bullet
DISTANT SUFFERING XXXX
i.d. of an artist's video portrait | 2024 utterly endlessly repurposed naive incantation gesture Hans Overvliet & Jochem Weststrate the video page 06
DISTANT SUFFERING XXXXV
i.d. of a shared gold-plated bullet
3 WORKS IN PROGRESS
gold plated ceramic bullet, silk roses, blue velver, classic bell jar 50 cm Ø | 22 cm
gold plated ceramic bullet, silk lilies, blue velvet, classic bell jar 50 cm Ø | 22 cm
DISTANT SUFFERING XXXXVII | i.d. of an encased bullet performance | multiple (50 + 3 A.P.’s)
Zeeuwse Art Fair Pop-up the Machine
Vlissingen | October 25 and 26, 2024
Photo’s courtesy of ©2024 Sylvia Hubrouck | Bo de Jong | Giel Louws
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an attempt to some words utterly endlessly repurposed naive incantation gesture
an attempt to some words
Despite all the preparations, starting in 2022 - finding the ‘proper’ bullet, making the 3D prints from the ‘appropriate’ one, figuring out the right size, making the molds and starting to cast the bullets from porcelain plaster - I had no idea what I was doing. No idea on what I was working toward. Other than transforming the object ‘bullet’. A bit like the concept of my ice bullet.
The first 120 bullets or so I just focused on the concentration of the making and - I hopeddirection. That went well until D. intuitively noticed that merely the making of these bullets was the artwork in itself. From then on, things went awry. After all, if casting the porcelain plaster bullets was the work itself, where did that artwork end?
While working on the series, things changed fundamentally in the Middle East: Hamas and affiliated groups on October 7 radically altered the resistance to Israel’s occupation of Gaza. As a result, Israel began a genocidal massacre of the Gaza population, i.e. also on my friends. Bullets, primarily designed to kill and wound, in this art work are completely transformed from destructive to harmless objects in this context. Bullets from porcelain gypsum completely undermine their destructive potential; placed in grave-like rows, a transformation occurs from an object of violence to an object of reflection and memory. By ‘verwandeln’ the destructive element of the bullet into something fragile, harmless, aesthetically pleasing, the now-appearing object reaches multiple layers of imagination.
object reaches multiple layers of imagination.
The result of the endlessly repeated act is simply displayed in tight rows. This presentation moves the category ‘bullet’ out of its idiom of violence into associations with new contexts of contemplation.
Conversations with filmmaker Jochem Weststrate about this project revealed an other personal layer. My art is very often composed of a multitude of variations on one form: 250 cans with plaster keys, 136 portraits of assassinated journalists, 3,000 images of clouds & explosions, destruction and seawaves, 38+ “water” paintings, etc.
Gilles Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition is always present in the back of my mind . . .
So in the end, the video that Jochem and I made, became a videoportrait of this artist. At the same time, by casting a number of these bullets every day, I hoped, compulsively and against my better judgment, that the people I know, including many people I can call my friends, in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, the West-Bank, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, etc. would stay alive.
Thus, the work and its possible purpose, apart from the making, legitimised itself within itself.
Alas: indeed against my better judgment . . .
art is not a mirror for society, but a hammer with which to shape it
Bertolt Brecht | Vladimir Mayakovski
Peer inspiration
Oleg KharchenkoUkraine | Maisara BaroudGaza
Giel Louws | Dani Ploeger
Jochem Weststrate | Willy van Houtum
The craftsmen
Hans Bommeljé | 3D-prints / moulds
Jaap | JG Schilders | gilding of the bullets
Jochem Weststrate | video recording / editing
The curators
Geeske Pluijmers | Adolfina de Stefani
Marie Verboven | leon riekwell
Musical inspiration
Incantation IV for three pianos | S. ten Holt
Pianists
Sandra Mol | Tamara Rumiantsev
Jeroen van Veen
Video direction / recording / edit & monitor console
Jochem Weststrate
Photos
Sylvia Hubrouck | Bo de Jong | Giel Louws
Exhibitions
2024 | Bewaerschole | Burgh Haamstede
2024 | Verbeke Foundation | KemzekeBelgium
2024 | Pop-up the Machine | Vlissingen
2025 | Visioni Altre | VeniceItaly
Supported by
still from the portrait video Vleeshal SBKM Middelburg
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