MESCHAC GABA, Untitled, 1997
1,2 x 5,9 x 3,9 cm
22 safety pins with banknote particles, plastic box
signed on lid
edition unknown
published by the artist
Collection K. van Gelder, Amsterdam
inv.MGaba 419-pr
In 1997 various items made out of banknotes were offered at one of the annual Open Ateliers of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. This transparent box produced in a small edition was offered for sale in the studio of Meschac Gaba. Gold coloured safety pins are stuck into Benin banknote particles in the shape of a tiny circle.
“No matter how determined Gaba’s refusal to speak about colonialism, the art system still tends to categorize his art within that framework. As early as 2001, he made a crystal clear opening statement in the ‘Library of the Museum’: “I use money, because I refuse to use the word colonialism.” The valuation system of money is continuously challenged by this artist. Before his Rijksakademie residency in 1997 and 1998, money as a physical object already was present in his assemblages. Later he turned devaluated banknotes of the Central Bank of the States of West Africa into confetti. The confetti was glued on all kinds of everyday objects. African devaluated coins glued to a simple ring, became desirable jewelry. Banknotes were transformed, by replacing the faces of the usual presidents by the artist’s, his fellows’, Picasso’s, or else his hair sculptures ‘Tresses’, and called them ‘Artist with American (or African) inspiration’. He also mounted the confetti on safety pins as a service in return for people becoming sponsors of his Museum of Contemporary African Art.” Daphne Pappers, 4 April 2014 in Africanah.org
JOHN BALDESSARI, I saw it, 1997
40,6 x 50,8 cm / 16 x 20 inches
offset
signed, numbered, dated
edition 100
published by Benefit Edition, Los Angeles, USA
John Baldessari is questioning the conventions of picture-making, among other things. One of the other things is very much related to picture-reading. The work “I saw it” refers obviously to objects one may see passing by in the sky, e.g. UFO’s.
SIGURDUR GUDMUNDSSON, Nutoen, 1997
23,8 x 16,7 cm
offset, 2 volumes (16 pp. + 32 pp.), transparent sleeve
edition 500
published by Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, 1997
This publication could beconsidered as half catalogue, half artist book. The picture on the front of volume I and the picture on the back of volume II form together one image of a sculpture installation ‘Disturb me’ (1997) of Sigurdur Gudmundsson. Both volumes come with a Dutch text by the artist about the making of the book and the works in his exhibition in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem.
HREINN FRIDFINNSSON, Impromptu (leftovers of the day from the studio of the artist), 1997
ca 35 x 20 x 1 cm
magnet, metal, 4 parts
unique series with various sizes and material
certificate
VOEBE DE GRUYTER, Dokalucht, 1996
29,7 x 15,2 cm
book with text in Dutch, each with original hand made charcoal drawing, tracing paper dustcover, SC, 24 pp.
edition 120
signed, numbered
published by The Bifrons Publisher / Galerie van Gelder, Amsterdam
€ 150,-
original sketch for the cover of the charcoal drawings of “Dokalucht”:
Dikwijls worden de werken van Voebe de Gruyter begeleid met een tekst. Hier reproduceert zij een dialoog: “Je moet nog een titel vinden voor het boekje!”
“Ja, maar het moet niet te literair zijn door het bijvoorbeeld naar een van de stukjes te noemen.”
Ik vond het vreselijk moeilijk. Drie dagen later kreeg ik plots een idee. Ik kwam op een vroege avond buiten en rook een sterke, zurige lucht om me heen. Waarschijnlijk een mengsel van uitlaatgassen van auto’s en vrachtwagens en andere stadsapparaten. Vrijwel onmiddellijk wist ik de titel: beelden uit een stad die aan het ontwikkelen zijn, waarvan sommigen al beeld zijn geworden en vorm hebben gekregen in stukjes.
MARTIN CREED, Work No. 88, 1995
diameter ca 5 cm crumpled sheet of A4 paper, paper shavings, cardboard box
numbered, signed on certificate
unlimited edition
published by Hauser & Wirth Edition, Zurich, Switzerland
not available
This work is made out of a sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball. It is an unlimited edition, but this doesn’t mean that such a work is available for ever: www.hauserwirth.com/editions/30/work-no-88-br-a-sheet-of-a4-paper-crumpled-into-a-ball/view/
LOUISE BOURGEOIS, Untitled, 1994
each 92,7 x 71 cm / 36 x 28 inches
hand coloured intaglio print
edition 65 (black and white) and edition 35 (red)
signed, numbered
published by The Paris Review, New York, USA
not available
Louise Bourgeois made sculptures in wood, steel, stone and cast rubber and used drawing and printing as a tool of artistic expression, often organic in form and sexually explicit, emotionally aggressive yet witty, covered many stylistic bases. But from first to last they shared a set of repeated themes centered on the human body and its need for nurture and protection in a frightening world; protection often translated into images of shelter or home.
History of prices:
each US$ 3,500.- September 2012
Mechanical Reproduction, 1994
14,8 x 10,5 cm
artists: HENRY BOND & LIAM GILLICK, SYLVIE FLEURY, RICHARD HAWKINS, ARNOLD MOSSELMAN and WOLFGANG TILLMANS
17 machine produced photos, 2 pages with text, transparant celluloid cover, 20 pp.
hand numbered
edition 50 extremely rare
published by Galerie van Gelder, Amsterdam
€ 1.500,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail
Published on behalf of exhibition ‘Een goed in de weg staande tafel’ / “A table absolutely standing in the way” in Galerie van Gelder in 1994, curator Jack Jaeger.
