'Cold War Monument'
There's a light bulb inside the empty TV screen that also switches on when the fridge door is opened to illuminate the blizzard. Photo: Eric Van Straaten
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The artwork in action playing a track from the LP called 'The Machine Gun Cart').Film: Ron Suffield (2 min. 40 secs.)
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One of the artworks installed in the 'Kringloopwinkel' was this fridge freezer and television. For more information and images follow this link to 'Cold War Monument.'
This piece was installed next to another fridge and another television that were for sale. The television in the artwork is hollowed out and polystyrene snow is blown into it from a vacuum cleaner in the fridge. It was a bit like a souvenir snow globe but it played music from a record player turntable in the freezer. The music is an LP of the 'Red Army Choir'.
This piece was installed next to another fridge and another television that were for sale. The television in the artwork is hollowed out and polystyrene snow is blown into it from a vacuum cleaner in the fridge. It was a bit like a souvenir snow globe but it played music from a record player turntable in the freezer. The music is an LP of the 'Red Army Choir'.
In situ. Photo: Eric Van Straaten
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Either 'Kringloopwinkel' customers (or art visitors) on an official 'Mareado' art tour stumble accross the artwork.
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When I was doing some maintenance on this piece a customer started to ask me lots of questions about it and told me how impressed he was with it. Then he said....
“...but I was looking for a television that worked normally and didn’t do this......do you have one like that?”
Instead of explaining that I wasn’t actually an employee of the 'Kringloopwinkel' I sold him the red television on the left hand side of the photograph.
“...but I was looking for a television that worked normally and didn’t do this......do you have one like that?”
Instead of explaining that I wasn’t actually an employee of the 'Kringloopwinkel' I sold him the red television on the left hand side of the photograph.
'Vacuum Cleaner Circle'
The 'Vacuum cleaner circle' with a record player added. Press play to hear the music that went along with this piece.
I added a record player to an old piece of work made from vacuum cleaners which played 'Ronnie Hilton' singing 'Around the world in 80 days''. It can be seen in this image on the table in the centre. To hear it over the noise of the vacuum cleaners it had to be played very loud. Despite the noise, the rhythm of the bin bags wafting from side to side as they turned on and off seemed to match the tempo of the music perfectly (See this link-Vacuum Cleaner Circle- for an explanation of how this piece worked).
`Vacuum Cleaner Circle' was installed in the carpet section of the shop and each vacuum cleaner is placed on its own separate mat. The work took a great deal of time to install as each vacuum cleaner had to be lined up with the next exactly for it to function. This delicate operation was foiled more than once as customers insisted on buying the mats that the cleaners were stood on.
`Vacuum Cleaner Circle' was installed in the carpet section of the shop and each vacuum cleaner is placed on its own separate mat. The work took a great deal of time to install as each vacuum cleaner had to be lined up with the next exactly for it to function. This delicate operation was foiled more than once as customers insisted on buying the mats that the cleaners were stood on.
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The film shows an earlier version of 'Vacuum cleaner circle' without the music. Collating documentation of these works 20 years later it's frustrating not having a film of the 'Vacuum cleaner circle' working in the 'Kringloopwinkel'. It just wasn't as easy in those days. Something that I could film on my phone in ten minutes today would take a lot of time and resources back then that I just didn't have.
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Film: Dave Page (2mins. 10secs)
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'Sketch for Aeroplane No. 3'
'Sketch for aeroplane No.3' placed on a dining room table in the furniture department. Photo: Eric Van Straaten
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'Sketch for Aeroplane No.3' (2mins. 56 secs)
filmed in '& Model gallery' some years later. |
Many of the artworks on show were quite fragile. The fact that they were all still working at the end of the exhibition was a testament to how considerate the public was and how well they were looked after by the staff at the 'Kringloopwinkel'. I have actually shown work in art galleries that have been shown far less respect. A typical fragile piece was 'Sketch for Aeroplane No.3' which used an Airfix model that flew from the air of a vacuum cleaner. For more information on this work click this link.
'The Plinth'
Photo: Doug Atfield
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Film: Ron Suffield (3 mins. 2 secs.)
Spin dryers in the 'Kringloopwinkel'
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Although there are no installation shots of this piece in the 'Kringloopwinkel', 'The Plinth' was made specifically for 'Reisbureau Mareado'. The shop had a collection of about five other spin dryers for sale all in a row. 'The Plinth' was put in front of this row. Whenever people walked past it a vacuum cleaner motor came on and blew open the lid. The record player in the bottom, again had to be quite loud to be heard over the noise of the motor. The singer is David Whitfield, an ex-sailor and native of Hull. For more information and long story on this piece click this link.
It was eventually switched off because it kept frightening customers.
It was eventually switched off because it kept frightening customers.
'Europa- Hoek Van Holland to Vladivostok'
Photo: Eric Van Straaten
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Film: Ron Suffield (3 mins. 31secs.)
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'Europa- Hoek Van Holland to Vladivostok' is made from two wooden boxes, comes apart and packs neatly into one box. It is ideal for travel. In the 'kringloopwinkel' there were several large trolleys used for moving furniture and heavy boxes around. I borrowed one for the duration of the show and placed the artwork on top of it. In a sense it was therefore in a permanent state of transience.
The music playing is the 'The Happy Wanderer' sung in German by the 'Obernkirchen' Children's Choir.
For more information about this piece click this link
The music playing is the 'The Happy Wanderer' sung in German by the 'Obernkirchen' Children's Choir.
For more information about this piece click this link
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I was in two minds weather to include this piece of work in 'Reisburo Mareado'. The original motivation with this piece was my ongoing interest in transport and landscape (It's a landscape painting in a small box travelling through a larger box). The act of creating it however made me reflect on my father’s experience of being deported in a cattle wagon during the war by Stalin’s NKVD. The 'German' recording was a deliberate decision to depersonalise the work and 'not' make it auto biographical. Despite being from 1954, its intersting how the music to some can have Nazi connotations. At the time I was interested in how these sinsiter associations could be conjured up using nothing but innocent toys and childrens voices. Whether it was right to refer to such a sensitive subject in the context of a shop that sold peoples old possessions was questionable. I personally think the ‘Kringloopwinkel', is a symbol of our post war, dystopian consumer culture. However, I thought it might be an irreverent place for a debate on the use of holocasust iconography in art. It was interesting therfore when the manager of the ‘Kringloopwinkel’ relayed an incident to me that had occurred while the exhibition was on.
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An elderly man visiting the shop had been taken aback by the work 'Europa- Hoek Van Holland to Vladivostok' as he had been an inmate in the camps as a child. He was even forced to sing “The Happy Wanderer” whilst he was there. He asked to see the manager to express his concerns and it was she who defended the work and the decision to display it in the shop. After acknowledging the war time references in the artwork she went onto say that it was important to publicise and remind people of this horrific history in order to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. The man left satisfied. 'Europa- Hoek Van Holland to Vladivostok' has been shown in four 'proper' art galleries but it never instigated such serious debate as this before.