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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 XXI | i.d. of a shared ice 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 a shared ice bullet

page 07

i.d. of an artist's video portrait- the video

page 12

i.d. of shared a gold-plated bullet

i.d. of the shared tale of a bullet

i.d. of an encased bullet - multiple

w o r d s

page 16 page 18 page 25 page 27 page

DISTANT SUFFERING XXI

| i.d. of a shared ice bullet video of the time laps

Material

Mold ‘hot Bullet Shape Mode’ from Etsy, Hong Kong

061207 1 H14-03-020 1 PL191 129 02 187 A.

Small bottles from Etsy, Hong Kong; High borosilicate glass and cork, volume: 85 oz (25ml), 90 mm x 20 mm; opening: about 13 mm.

Severin GB 8882 - freezer | Steel console 110 x 60 x 60 cm | powder coated

Time-laps video

Production | special thanks to

Willy van Houtum | research, implementation, production, video, text

Loek Overvliet | console

Jochem Westrate | for CineCityXL productions | time-laps video – stills

Photos

Willy van Houtum, Roman RejholdCZ , Rikard FåhraeusSE , Azumi OkabeJP ,

Ivan van de CapelleBE , Ruben HordijkNL/SE , Giel Louws, Dirk KnickhoffBRD

Sylvia Hubrouck

Open Space |

SkaliceCZE | June 11, 2022

Juxtapose Art Fair | AarhusDNK | August 20 – 22, 2021

ruimteCAESUUR / Studio44SWE | December 6, 2021 - January 7, 2022 CultuurCentrum BruggeBE | April 21 – May 29, 2022

Supermarket Art Fair | StockholmSWE | May 25 – May 29, 2022

| Långholmen | StockholmSWE | June 4 – 19, 2022

bahnhof25 | KleveBRD | November 11 – December 3, 2023

Verbeke Foundation | KemzekeBE | November 17, 2024 – April 23, 2025

Exhibitions | special thanks to

Roman Rejhold and Kate Štroblová | curators for Luxfer Open Space | Czech Republic

Wilfried Agricola de Cologne and Yarina Butkowska curators The New Museum of Networked Art

Jan Verhaeghe | curator for CultuurCentrum Brugge | Bruges | Belgium

Kit Hill | curator for DiEM25 / DiEm Gallery – website

Alice Máselníková | Andreas Ribbung

creative Directors Supermarket Independent Art Fair Stockholm | Sweden

Rikard Fåhraeus and team

The artist-house Slipvillan on Långholmen | Stockholm | Sweden

Leni van den Berge | owner of de roofprintpers | Middelburg | the Netherlnds

Dirk D. Knickhoff, Elisabeth Schink, Ulrike E.W. Scholder | board & curators kunstverein projektraum bahnhof25 | Kleve | Germany

Marie Verbovem, Geert Verbeke | Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium

Financial support

Supermarket Independent Art FairSweden: Mondrian Fund

Luxfer OpenSpace Czech Republic and Juxtapose Art Fair AarhusDenmark

SBKM / Vleeshal

SlipvillanSweden: Kulturrådet | Region Stockholm

Kunstverein projektraum-bahnof25 | KleveGermany: SBKM / Vleeshal

DISTANT SUFFERING XXXX

i.d. of an artist's video portrait | 2024 utterly endlessly repurposed naive incantation gesture

co-production 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

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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