crox 2/ crox 16/crox 27: Hans van Heirseele. This aspect from
the oeuvre of Hans van Heirseele is entirely under the sign of Corot.
crox 12: Wouter Cox. A cup of coffee, sugars, bread crumbs, mouldy
coffee grounds.
crox 51: Peter Dewindt. Colour pictures. The still life is
integrated in shiningly clear, homely scenes.
crox 53: Gosbert Adler. Breakfast table in his parent’s house.
crox 60: Dirk Zoete. The still life as puke, or the other way
round.
crox 64 (Dre Devens). There is a performance by Hans van
Heirseele during the opening night. The scene is a replica of the paintings he
is working on at that time: a wooden table, a typewriter, a pile of books, a
cup of coffee, a wine glass.
crox 70: Roger Raveel (cactus) and Hans van
Heirseele (schilderij 705).
crox 72: Kamagurka. Still life with atomic bomb.
crox 76: Jan De Cock. Though undoubtedly intended otherwise, the
interventions of Jan De Cock have the character
of a still life.
crox 113: Jan Willem Verherbrugge. Photografic diary entries.
crox 116: Jos Van Meerssche. Among the many landscapes, there is one still life. The tableau in feisty red is painted after a photo of a table
after the meal.
crox 120: Dirk Peers. This time, the exhibition itself is
conceived as a still life.
crox 123 (2004). No nature morte
in Marc Coene’s work. Only in the third solo presentation (crox 201) appears
with the character of a still life, as usual in the warm and rich greytones of
Coene.
crox 131 (2005). A similar situation in the presentation by J. Van
der Borght, Sacre Bordel, a project
where he brings together work of his several alter ego’s by way of a
retrospective. The presentation itself, with tables, tresles, and all kinds of
surfaces used as supports and plinths, chaotically and ingeniously constructed,
reveals here and there fragments and corners that could be interpreted as still
lifes, which they also become when turned into a photo.
crox 135 (2005). The passage of time in the solo presentation of
Ante Timmermans was to limited to be able to draw any conclusions from it. Ante’s
work, the work from that period, has an aspect referring to the still life, more
to the still life as a philosophical position than to the genre of the nature morte.
crox 138 (2005). STIL-LEVEN, the title of a project by Nathalie
Nijs at Onderstraat 26. Mark the dash: stil-leven [in Dutch normally written
stilleven]. One could ask what that dash is doing there. If it is not about
still lifes but about still lives, it is useless. Wouldn’t Silent Lives or
Quiet Lives have been better in that case? The dash must have a reason. I’m
puzzled.
crox 145, BASICS 2 (2005). An encyclopaedic and thoroughly
thought-out collection of elements, a work by Lieve D'hondt. During the sequel
(Oudenaarde 2006) she shows identical work, only with different elements. From
Stijn Cole a water-colour of a box of water colours.
crox 153 (2005). The installation window of Samir Boudia,
ADMINISTRATION, has a small office, constructed in mdf and painted gray, a gray table, a chair, also gray, and the objects at the tabletop, a folder, a
stamp are gray just as well. All is gray.
crox 158-1 (2005). I’m not sure if there were any photo’s linking
to this theme in the first project of Ria Bauwens, a project in the cube space.
Neither do I know if there were any in the second project (2010), also in the
cube. Ria Bauwens, aka Frips in the online mail art scene, rather frequently
makes photos that keep close to things as they are, a sofa, a forgotten wall, a
pattern of bathroom tiles, all without contextual information - things.
crox 160 (2005). One of the paintings of Jos Van Meerssche, it’s
his second solo presentation, is a dish of bacon and eggs. According to the
artist it is a night sky full of stars, but bacon and eggs are just as good.
The canvas is in the private collection of Laura van. It is in the passage to
the second floor.
crox 166 (2006). ZEN-PUNK, Nicolas Leus. A table with a hundred
objects. One of the objects is projecting a series of slides of Leus’ works and
other things on the wall to the right. I remember looking at that table after
browsing through the top half of the pile of picture postcards and suddenly
seeing the still life. It was not hard to do so.
crox 183 (2006). Still life with a bar of soap in a metal
container, the soap is full of needles, and a leaking roof. A work in situ by
Debra Tolchinsky (US).
crox 188 (2006). SIFON (brainbox, unit 7). A grotesque. The still
life is expanded to everything related to the project.
Verzamelwoede (2007) [> collection]. The project. Cause, effect.
The presentation on a table of 50 meters. Hundreds od works, presented in such
a way that it has the effect of a huge still life.
crox 219-2 (2007). KASKweek. Rob De Schutter’s still life: a white
space.
crox 234 (2007). In as far as you can call it a still life: the workbench
and tables stuffed with bric-à-brac, a presentation Pieter De Clercq has shown
in a similar way at Kask for a mid term jury.
crox 248 (2008). A project by Karel Wouters in the cube space. Drawings.
Two of the drawings show bird cages. In one of the cages, the other one
ostentiously being empty, there is a bowl with a figurine.
crox 253 (2008), Happening Cage and Fluxus. The typewriter appears
often in the work of van from the mid-nineties. A typewriter, notebooks, books.
Around the same time the Piece for Typewriter, tin can, flute and voices, is
performed during the opening night of the project of Dre Devens (1997). During
crox 253 it is about a work of John Cage. The typewriter is on a table. From
time to time one of the performers sits at the typewriter and performs the
piece, a short text where a scant number of instructions has to be followed.
crox 256 (2008), Steven Baelen. Sketchily made studies of an
interior design. The still life is ubiquitous and at the same time nowhere
present as such.
crox 277 (2008-2009), Brainbox2. The workbench. Beer bottles, an
ashtray. The a4 with a sketch. A
concept, starting points, an alternative, dimensions. At times a pair of
scissors or a cutter, at times a rag, a box of nails and screws and a half eaten
apple with the brownish traces from the bites in the fruit’s flesh, at times a
tape measure. During the project the table, which is practically always an
other table except when the little black table is used, moves from the front to
the back and the still life on the table is always changing.
crox 278, Het Kunstenbuffet [The Art Buffet], by students showing their current work (2008). An electric typewriter, the stash of sheets with pink dots, writing materials, some paper rolling itself up and the blonde girl serving as MC. One of the pieces has the character of a still life: a wooden crate of the kind used to transport figs or dates, and two bottles half filled with some muddy slurry. The small wooden box is also coloured like mud. During the short build-up, one of Georges' plinths doubles as a work bench. This is a still life with hammers, metal containers with nails and screws, a mirror and a bowl of nuts.
crox 277, unit 5 (2009). 1. A cardboard box with some wood and a dustpan. 2. A video projection on or through a bottle of water and a beerglass half filled with water. 3. The cup of coffee and a bowl with pancake dough. A recipe for razorthin pancakes: don't use self-raising flour. Wheat flour suffices, maybe with a bit of e.g. buchwheat added. Milk. Don't use a mixer, stir with for example two forks forked together. The mixture should be as light as possible so maybe add some extra water but not too much. Depending on the volume of flour 1 or 2 liters of milk. Add three yolks and a pinch of cinnamon. Stir. Add some molten butter and no sugar or some sugar to taste. Whisk the egg whites and carefully scoop them through the dough. Let the dough rest for two hours.
4. The work bench.
crox 293, a film by Kathy Vercauteren (2009). The diamond pattern. The cups, the saucers, the towels, and the table cloth, all have the same diamond pattern.
crox 296, Rik De Boe, drawings (2009). A viewmaster, a roll of transparant adhesive tape, a turntable, a testing image, a plastic container, the insides of a tape cassette, a table with a pile of round adhesive tape. The objects are almost clinical in aspect. Photografic precision. Most often in singular: one viewmaster, one roll of adhesive tape. Virtuoso down to the smallest details and refined because precisely those smallest details acquire an abstract depth.