February 16, 2012

Decisively diverted

"The essence of sculpture is for me the perception of space, the continuum of our existence."
- Isamu Noguchi

Starting a lot of posts with "I'm reading this book', I guess I read a lot of books, because I have to start this post again with: "I'm reading this book" about Richard Long's 'A Line Made by Walking' by Dieter Roelstraete. I was at the Van Abbemuseum to get more ideas for a project. Going into the Giftshop, promising myself not to buy anymore books, but allow myself to look, I saw this book that I had to buy because of another project I'm thinking about. Not buying books is a promise I can't keep. But luckily for me, this book really helps getting one of my project proposals into clear thoughts.

Installation, 1992 by Bob Verschueren

Before entering the Giftshop this postcard caught my eye. This beautiful installation by Bob Verschueren is made by leaves. On his site you can find more great temporary carpets on great locations under "A little horizontality" . Wish I was so lucky to work on such locations, it makes it so much more fragile and monumental. On the one hand finding more temporary carpets makes it difficult for me to not get extra critical about my ricecarpets, on the other hand it's a nice idea that my work is part of an art movement about temporality objects made on floors.

"Norfolk Flint Circle", 1990 by Richard Long

"(..)Seeing one particular Isamu Noguchi work not only gave Long his first ideas for the floor sculptures that continue to pop up in his work to the present day (the first sculptures in that vein were made in 1965), but also decisively diverted his attention towards the floor as such - towards the surface of the earth upon which we walk."
- from "A Line Made by Walking" by Dieter Roelstraete

"This Earth This Passage", 1962, bronze by Isamu Noguchi

Don't know if it was this sculpture by Isamu Noguchi, but I understand that seeing sculptures finally being placed into the space one their own without a pedestal is a real eye-opener.
I don't know where my floor-focus comes from. I remember playing in the house of my grandparents. Their house is like the Tropenmuseum depot with sculptures, paintings and other fascinating objects from around the world on display. The floor is covered with Persian carpets. Normally you own one carpet and place it in the center of your living room, at my grandparents the carpets are laying criss-cross, even overlapping each-other. I remember pretending to be an explorer, the different carpets were different countries I could travel to, the beige carpeting was the ocean and I was only allowed to travel using the carpets.

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