abecedarium
>ape He was pinned a monkey on his sleeve [lit.
trans. of ‘Hij kreeg een aap op de mouw gespeld.’ He was told porkies.] He
was lodged at the ape’s [lit. trans. of ‘Was in de aap gelogeerd.’ He was treated badly by his host.] The
ape serves, be it not wholy willingly, as a precursor and paradigm./ >Apikov (crox 1)./ Monkey shine by Thomas Boïng (crox 191)./ A
black-and-white picture of baboons was integrated in one of the mail art items
by Herman Kruiskamp from the private collection of >Frips (Verzamelwoede 2007). In one of the batiks by Ada Van Hoorebeke appears the ape of Michaël Jackson who appears in his turn, in the nude and seriously pimped in a photo by Debra Tolchinsky.
antelope Stefaan Dheedene, A Manual 1. Video. An African
explains how to catch an antelope. No antelopes (who actually are pro eloping) in the Eternal Grounds project of Ada Van Hoorebeke.
bear crox
91: the bear cubs of Heike Kati Barath./ crox 73: the bear cubs of Thomas
Böing./ crox 68, Amy Kephart: a polar bear.
bird The border, a drawing by
Philippe >Vandenberg. The work shows a column of black birds uprightly
walking across a line. (crox 96)./ crox
156, Caroline Vincart: movie of a flock of crows./ crox 84, Bart Baele: portrait
of a bird./ crox 88, Anton Cotteleer. 'The cage/table seems to house a bird
that doesn’t choose to escape through the hole in the table.’ (Edith Doove)/ One of the earliest interventions involving a
bird or its remains Suenos oniricos, a triptych by Frank Van den
Eeckhout (crox 16, zelfportretten/ 1991). Three installations are presented in
the front room of Beverhoutplein 7, seperated by ceiling-high partitions. The
middle one has, among other things, a mirror and birds’ feathers./ Portrait with pidgeon, contribution
of Nora De Rudder to the catalogue of En
Passant (1991)./ Florin Buta (2005). A work named ‘brood op de vogels gooien’,
meaning as much as: making a useless effort. The birds are geese or ducks. The name
originates in a Romanian proverb: if one
throws the bread on the birds, they can’t eat it, which is apparently useless
work, in Romania. / 'Die Fliege fliegt und stürzt verrückt', an
animated movie by Steffie Van Cauter. No insect-likes in the movie but a bird
that at first is on top of a mountain, walks about aimlessly, answers a phone or
not yet and flies in an infinite span of time from A to Z, or the other way
round./ End of year show of the painters’ class of KASK: Michiel Ceulers’ canary. --> eagle --> chicken --> parrot
butterfly Edwin
Carels, crox 18 (En Passant/ 1991). Location of the installation window by EC
is Geldmunt 32, the shop window of Avalon. Especially for this project, Edwin
has a package of chrysalises sent from London, hoping they would emerge during
the project. Which doesn’t happen./ One of the contributions to the second
edition of crox 17, the copy art project (1991-1992), is a work by Hainke, a
portrait of the artist as a lepidoptorist. Hainke has two versions, in black
and white for the project properly and in colour for the multiple.
cat A feline in thick strings of paint,
fresh from the tube (crox 93/ Heike Kati Barath)./ Siska and Ollie, till 1995
the pets at Aannemersstraat 54./ Groseille, the white kitten of the neighbours,
is acting in a video by Thomas Bogaert. The movie is a part of Brainbox2 unit
9, a collaboration of Thomas Bogaert,
Kelly Schacht and Bart Lodewijks and one of the climaxes of the second edition
of the brainbox project.
chicken Rik Soenen: Chickens. Installation
window May 2005, Onderstraat 26. The work portrays one hunderd and eleven bantam
hens./ Thomas Böing (crox 191): poultry; is the title of one of the works in crox-boek NR 4./ The Chicken Factory (March
2008), performance by Veridiana Zurita and Luanda (Br). Assistence from one
Romolus Molenbergh. The project version they show in 2008 is a try-out, based on
a text of Luanda./ The chicken of Stefanie (end of year show sculpture , March
2010), sits on an egg because otherwise it would topple over .
>cow Common
archetype in the Works of Dirk Zoete and Michaël Borremans. See e.g. of the latter Call to the higher consciousness, a
work from 1995 (crox 33). Is raised in a practically similar way in crox 118, the
first solo project of CarianaCarianne: one
zillion cows, or an all-inclusive portrait of humanity as a herd. Omnipresent
in Anarchistisch ploegen [anarchistic plows], the intervention of the fourth
brainbox unit (crox 188-IV)./ Drill and skull (crox 1/ art machine); the skull
is one of a cow.
deer Stief
Desmet: deer heads (crox 145-I)./ crox 68, Amy Kephart. Solo project with oil
portraits of arctic species, to wit the polar bear, the sheathbill and the
vanilla snowdeer./ Dirk
Peers, crox 120 (hommage). Self-portrait as a hart, carrying Saint-Hubertus’
crucifix on the skull, a common natural phenomenon during autumn walks. A man
or a woman with the antlers of a stag on their head is a recurrent theme in the
work of Carole Vanderlinden (crox 129/ 2004) and Fia Cielen./ Jos Van Meerssche
(crox 160). One of the paintings shows a deer. 'Those are the landscapes where
I used deer.’ says the artist./ For project Verzamelwoede (Oudenaarde 2007) Stief Desmet contributes
a collection of deer heads, titled Collectione di Stief Desmet. The frolics and
dressing up of Frank and Robbert. After their acte de présence in The
Gentlemen's Gentlemen, a project of Brian Getnick and Noe Kidder (April 2008),
two solo projects follow, the first one at the end of 2008, where they as usual
figure as cow and deer, beef and venison. Frank is the bull, Robbert the stag.
>dog A dog that should not go unmentioned is the
one present in the backdrop of the fourth phase of brainbox (crox 188), close to the victim./ In the essay BUT let me tell you about another,
even more curious adventure, text for
the catalogue of the 2006 Zwirner-expo of Michaël Borremans, van
Heirseele brings up the concept of 'homo caniens', the canine human or the
manhound: 'Homo caniens, or doglike man, the dog-man or man-dog, knows only one
truth, his own.' In the same essay the author also quotes from 'Meer kennis van
uw hond', [Know more about your dog] by Jan Van Rheenen./ even more dogs in
NOTES (crox-boek NR 4) by Thomas Böing: dog
and master en dog school./ crox-card NR 8: Dog, a piece by Michaël Borremans from
1998. It represents a toy soldier, face and shoulders effaced by a broad swath
of cadmium red. Red, more precisely cadmium red, is exemplary of all the works
in the second crox solo (crox 93, The Fetish)./ A whippetlike dog of plaster or
clay, one of the contributions of Rik
Soenen to the sequel of Basics 2 (2006). Suzan Smith, daughter of Alan, also
did a dog sculpture , a funny wide-legged pup built from lego bricks./ The
falling dog, a work by Heike Kati Barath, and the Ecuadorian mutt, a photo by
Marc Coene. Both works are part of the series of crox-cards./ Rund [cow] is the
name of the dog of Jelle and Sarah. There is a funny picture of Rund in the
crox-blog. An acte de présence from the mongrel of Paris Hilton in the work of Ada Van Hoorebeke and on top of that the question whether smurfs are animals. In Ada's work smurfs are everywhere. All of the make an appearance. Sure enough smurfs are animals.
duck The
wooden ducks of Jan Janssen and Johnny Michel (crox 18, En Passant/ 1991). Location Foetonhuis in Onderbergen. The
ducklings are placed among other commodities where they are hardly conspicuous
– you have to be an expert to spot the difference.
eagle Cathérine Lommée (October 2008). Haiku and
Skulptur I, two films she made in Czech Rep. The eagle who is
the main character in both movies, is a tame eagle.
elephant Fetish
element in the mail art correspondence between Sjoerd Paridaen and Hans van
Heirseele. Paridaen is the one who introduces the topic. The reference is Olifant The Elephant L'éléphant, title
of a collection of poems by Hans van Heirseele. One of the poems, The Elephant, has been used in 1993 for a
composition for choir and ventriloquist by Lucien Posman. The poem runs as
follows: 'There's an elephant in front of the door. What, an elephant, what? What's
an elephant?' And so forth, anyway, something of the sort. Côte d'Or is massive
proof of the aformentioned proposition.
But, and also mostly: the elephant is a funny animal. This is an
attribute it shares with the monkey and the dog.
fish In
the first guest book (1990-2000) an ansjovy can be found, at the very front. It
was during crox 3, the first solo project of Edwin Carels, that the unfortunate
animal surfaced between the pages. A breughelesque
character, fish in mouth; a narrative work by Dirk Zoete, part of his second
crox solo in 2007.
fly Contribution by Thomas Böing to the
sequel of Basics 2 (2006). During the build-up of this edition, in Abdij
Maagdendale, Alan Smith constructed an in situ work using the dead flies he
comes across./ Jos Van
Meerssche (crox 110, Basics 1): a dead fly sticks to one of the pages of the
drawing book of JVM. / 'die Fliege fliegt und stürzt verrückt', an animated
movie by Steffie Van Cauter has been shown twice in croxhapox, first in 2008, the
next year during the Zennestraat project in Brussels. The fly of the title isn’t
a fly but rather a flying being that flies and flies and flies till it is all
upset and crashes./ The beer bottle flies. They appear faster than you can say
‘drosophila melanogaster’.
frog Luk
Gobijn: Formula Frog World Championship 1990 (crox 12/ January 1991)./ Frogs in
a rice paddy, a sound sculpture by Dirk Veulemans (December 2009). The
sculpture thanks its title to a remark made by Yoshimasa Matsumoto.
giraffe The giraffe and the
beetle by Jan Opdebeeck. Order: Charcoalidae.
hare >rabbit/
it's impossible to explain pictures to a
dead hare, a neon sculpture by NGIP (crox 131, January 2005)/ Iconographic
element which returns often in the oeuvre of productiehuis Vervaecke.
horse crox 10, Almost 10 jaar Cowboy Henk:
the horse and its rider./ >brainbox unit 4 (crox 188-IV): the horse as
ploughbeast./ metaphorically speaking: the puffed-up one [de over het paard
getilde; literally: the one who has been raised over the horse]./ A piece by
Ingrid Apers (April 2007, Verzamelwoede); the horse’s head is packed in a
protective, conical sheath. The species also frequently figures in the work of productiehuis
Vervaecke. / Yoshimasa Matsumoto’s eldest son (December 2009) portrayed as
infanta in an equestrian portrait by Velazquez. Only the back side of the horse
can be seen.
jackal Jackals,
song by The Singing Painters. Originates in the early stages (1998). The only
TSP TSP ever to be aired on radio.
lizard Iconographic
element which returns often in the oeuvre of
the late Dirk Peers.
mouse Thomas Böing: The decision. Drawing of a Mouse
watching a mousetrap./ The breadbox and
the mouse orgy during the second solo project by Dirk Zoete (2007). They had
nibbled away everything apart from the crust of a couple of loaves-turned-into-slippers
shown in a cupboard. An unforgettable moment: Dirk taking one of the loaves
which explodes into dust in his paws, nothing left over but a paper thin crust.
parrot Yoko, a grey parrot. Till
circa 2007 Yoko is a part of the furniture of the buffet of Ghent Dampoort
railway station. Rumours have it that it has moved to the Baleares. Extra in the
film Buffet Gent Dampoort of Freya Maes (September 2009).
pinguin Thomas Böing, crox 191 (2006). A
series of photo’s of stuffed animal. The animals have been cut away from the
pictures, showing only the hole they left behind. More pinguins in crox-book NR
4: The Fuehrer explains the
evolution to a pinguin.
rabbit The
species is often to be found in the oeuvre of Thomas Böing (crox 73/
crox 191) and Heike Kati Barath (crox 93). Other artists evidently have less
affinity with the rabbit. In the oeuvre of Borremans a dead hare turns up circa 2006. The species furthermore
gives acte de présence in the second installation window of Sjoerd Paridaen and
Erik Lagrain (crox 42, March 1996) and the '9/11 lego-party' by Alan Smith
(crox 197)./ Fetusses of rabbits, conserved in formalin and seasoned by a veg;
a collection by Wim De Waegeneer (Verzamelwoede 2007).
sheep Antje Dorn
(crox 31/ 1995). A series of pictures, based on traffic signs, white on
a background of blue. One of the symbols has a sheep. / In the lego-party, part
of the project of Alan Smith (crox 197), it comes as a herd./ After the
performance 'But is it art?' (april 2008) during the lecture by Canadese mail artist
Anna Banana there is a picture of a sheep with black legs. See timetable.
snail Ann
Cannoot (crox 145-II, Basics 2 sequel): basic material. One of the contributed
elements is an image of a pride of escargots.
snake Installation
with 111 serpents made of clay and peat, a piece by Marc De Roover (crox 18/ En
Passant)./ Archetypical element in Ada Van Hoorebeke’s works. Archetypic element in Ada Van Hoorebeke's work: the serpent of infinity that bites in it's own tail.
squirrel Anton Cotteleer (crox 88). 'A bit
further sits a small red plastic bucket. The animal you
would expect to find in the cage can be found here – not a bird but a squirrel
that lies utterly dead and stuffed and dissolves in its environment.’ (Edith Doove)
NOTES, crox-boek NR 4 by Thomas Böing: birdhouse,
poultry, exodus, two birds. Similar to Vandenberg and Buta, Böing reduces the
identity of the fowl to an iconografic minimum.
parrots and parakeets; Fia Cielen (basics 2 sequel).
fox Alan
Smith (crox 197), the lego party. One of the animals that show up at the party
is a fox.
walrus Alan
Smith (crox 197), the lego party.
worm An in situ work by Fia Cielen (basics 2 sequel/ 2006): an islet of turfs of grass drifts
on the lower shelf of a stack. Just above, fixed to the bottom of the next
shelf, there is a circle of parrots and parakeets. The turf is not at all
uninhabited; apart from several species of small insects, a number of centipedes (chilopodae, subcl. anamorphae
and epimorphae) and an earthworm had
moved in.
zebra In Eternal Grounds, a project of Ada Van Hoorebeke (January 2010) a fleet of African tetrapods. Elephants, zebra's, gazelles. The parrot too, the ape of Michaël Jackson and Paris Hilton's mongrel. And also the smurfs.