THE EXTENSIVE CATALOGUE
When I moved into the house where I am still living, back in 1979, a strip of wall paper had remained on the back wall. All other walls had been demolished and its debris was thrown into the garden on a large heap. This piece of wall paper appeared to consist of twenty layers. The lowest layer was of course lathwork (jute). The next layer consisted of – a third layer- newspapers from 1883. You could more or less recapture the history of the house and the taste of its residents. Carefully I separated the twenty layers from each other, and pasted them next to each other, neatly in small squares. I called it Archaeology 1979.
I kept on doing things like this on an irregular basis. I treat apparent trivialities with great precision and care as if they have great value. And to me they have great value. I once built a small temple for the remnants of my first teddy bear. Thousands of letters, ten thousands of sugar bags are carefully classified and put in folders. I once made a small booklet showing the buildings behind the Cinetone film studios that have been torn down long ago. Favourite old garments are described and put in a database as if it were a museum collection.
When I was invited by PERRON 1 in Delden to participate in an exposition in honour of their anniversary that would carry the title Depot gevonden en verloren kunstvoorwerpen (Depository of lost and found art objects) I at first didn't dare to consider what I might do. It is quite something to dare to make art. Allowing yourself to do that. What an audacity! And then suddenly one night – long after the deadline had passed - I knew exactly what I had to do and suddenly I was very inspired and wanted to tinker about. I then made a small item. An object it is called. Archive 2007-02, with the subtitle I once was lost, but now am found. No Ifm not going to explain what it means.
This
lost object could be seen from 29th June until 16th August 2007
in the old railway station of Delden. In between 64 other
objects. I like that idea. That there are so many trains passing
each day, yes, I like that too.
Only recently I got the idea to make a sort of catalogue of all
the things I make or collect. An archive of objects that is
important to me. And what looks, at first sight, at random and
unimportant, is of course at the same time its own universe. I am
far from having finished this. I have only just started.