SMALL STUFF NEW YORK

DRAWINGS, SCALE-MODELS, DRAFTS, CLIPPINGS AND OTHER EPHEMERA

BY

ORLA BARRY - LAURENT BAUDOUX - PASCAL BERNIER –  GUILLAUME BIJL - LEO COPERS - ANNE DAEMS - FRANKY DC –  LUC DELEU – FILIP DENIS – ELS DIETVORST – MONICA DROSTE - CHRISTOPH FINK – MICHEL FRANÇOIS – ANN VERONICA JANSSENS - RAWA KARI - VIVIANE KLAGSBRUN – BERND LOHAUS –
WILLEM OOREBEEK – PANAMARENKO – GUY ROMBOUTS – GERRY SMITH - OLIVIER STEVENART - WALTER SWENNEN –
HERMAN TEIRLINCK - KOEN THEYS - JOËLLE TUERLINCKX – MICHAEL VAN DEN ABEELE – WEIN VAN DEN BROUCKE – RICHARD VENLET & ANGEL VERGARA -

BROUGHT TOGETHER BY HANS THEYS FOR THE NICOLE KLAGSBRUN GALLERY


Introduction

The charm of the exhibition seems to ensue from the generous way in which all the artists have collaborated, regardless of their different ‘styles’ and approaches. That’s why we didn’t put any names or titles on the walls. The numbers on this list, however, correspond to the pencil numbers on the walls and floors.
For some of the participating artists like Joëlle Tuerlinckx and Orla Barry, the exhibited drawings, scale-models or clippings are an integral part of their work. For the other artists they are just by-products, more private works that aren’t normally intended for exhibition. As a result, the show continually shifts from a documentary to a poetic viewpoint, leaving the beholder with pleasantly twisted feelings and the unexpected impression that somebody really wants to show something here.

Hans Theys




LIST OF EXHIBITED WORKS


ORLA BARRY

Orla Barry’s work may be seen as an epic poem with disjointed verses. A documentation of single moments which are hopelessly connected. A string of happenings which leads to death, with only the passing of time and the isolation of elements to describe this journey. The system is open and always remains fragmented, never allowing the viewer to follow a moment to its natural end, if such a thing is definable. The work should wander like day dreams without very much structure and the fictive element should be open to the viewer’s own perception of the story of that time; without allowing them to enter the flow. Suddenly it breaks off and moves on.

1
‘Peggy Babcock - Bitter Peacock’, written and directed by Orla Barry, playing time 22 minutes and 25 seconds. CD and textbook (26,7 x 18,5 cm), black print on bordeaux paper, bound with red rings.

2
‘Bloodrush - Dragstone – Headstand in a bucket full of ice’
Black and white photograph, 10 x 15 cm

3
‘Nine Blue Volumes’ (1991-99)



LAURENT BAUDOUX

4
‘Turntable’ - 1999
1,7 x 3,6 x 5,35 cm
Matchbox, pieces of matchbox, matches



PASCAL BERNIER

Pascal Bernier makes art out of things that normally are only noticed by the people who need them. Erotic instruments, artificial limbs, stuffed animals, funeral wreaths, children’s toys, wigs, etc. Very often he treats or shows these objects or images in a way that beautifies them. “It ‘s a pop nightmare,” Stefano Chiodi wrote.

5
‘Let Them Burn’ - 1996
Small soldiers, frying pan, chrome

6
‘Beach Gun’ - 1998

7
‘Hunting Accident (Chick)’ - 1994-1999
Stuffed Chick, bandage, glue.

8
‘Photo Farm Set Piglets’ - 1999
Color photograph, 10 x 15 cm

9
‘Pink Vagina & Black Cock’ - 1993
Latex, polyester, acrylic paint on wooden frame

10
Three documents: ‘My son’ (polaroid), ‘Farm Set Pigs’ (polaroid), ‘A Friend’s Advice’ (felt-tipped pen on cardboard target)



GUILLAUME BIJL

Since the end of the seventies, Guillaume Bijl has been transforming existing spaces like galleries or museums into more ‘functional’ spaces like a fitness-room, an atomic shelter, a shooting stand, an auction room, a caravan show, a lamp shop, an archaeological museum, a political meeting place, a show of four non-existing American Artists, etc. Sometimes he also makes posters for these happenings. Just like the transformations themselves, these posters are very precise imitations of the real stuff; the name of the artist is only to be found somewhere on the side.
The poster shown at this exhibition advertises an Erotic History Museum. A part of this museum has been shown for the first time in Belgium at the previous ‘Small Stuff’ exhibition.

11
‘Die Geschichte der Erotik von Prähistorie bis Heute’ (The History of Erotics from Prehistory till Today) - 1995
Poster, 60 x 30 cm



LEO COPERS

Leo Copers is a camp poet of a love he doesn’t believe in. Love is seen as a deceitful fairy tale. It’s a fairy tale about roses and stylized hearts, but also about steel meathooks and cut-out hearts in nicely sculpted shrines; about hovering tables, glass cages and a sword kept in a block of clear ice. It’s a fairy tale about cheating, lying and hurting. You wake up from a dream and the knife you were dreaming about lies next to you on the pillow, covered with blood. The bed of petals on which you were sleeping has wilted and is already turning into brown putridity.

12
‘Chainsaw outside’ - 1997
Pencil and acrylic paint on paper (29,5 x 20,9 cm)



ANNE DAEMS

Anne Daems makes clean-cut color photographs and drawings. The scenes from daily life she shows us make us laugh, but at the same time they seem to suggest that we are surrounded by sordid settings that make us do strange things like cleaning the pavement, pulling out weeds and making serious faces.

13
‘Man in voortuin’ (Man in his Yard) - 1999
Video, 13’

14
‘Na de markt is alle rommel gratis’ (After the market all the junk is for free) - 1999
Four color photographs, 45 x 30 cm

15
‘A pile of stacked-up shopping baskets walked through the supermarket’ - 1998
Pencil and colored pencil on paper, framed : 31,7 x 43,5 cm

16
‘After the market there are heaps of fruit and vegetables under the tables’ - 1999
Pencil and colored pencil on paper, framed : 31,7 x 43,5 cm



FRANKY DC

Franky DC is a painter, known for his works painted on X-rays and his use of existing paintings. Since 1989 he sees the color orange as a visual indicator, an instrument that helps him see the things around him. The more you get aquainted with Franky DC’s work, the more the color orange starts acting like a bug in your way of perceiving the world. You start noticing people or objects you never have seen before. The collection of all these appearances of orange is called the ‘Auto-Katalytic Web’.

17
‘AUTO-KATALYTIC WEB / SAMPLES FDC’
Sample A 13 September 1942
Sample B 29 January 1959
Sample C 3 August 1969
Sample D 1971 (Europalia Publicity)
Sample D January 1998

18
‘Drawing on Envelope’ - 1997
Pencil and color pencil on envelope, 14 x 16 cm

19
‘My Drawing PU’ - 1993
Signed and dated: ‘FDC 28.7.93’

20
‘Triptyque’ - 1987-1988
13,9 x 9,9 cm

21
‘Sandcastle’ -- 1992
Concrete object painted orange, approximately 14,5 x 17 x 15 cm

22
‘Computer print 1/1’ - 1998
29,7 x 21 cm



LUC DELEU


Luc Deleu is an architect who tries to question the way the building of houses, railroads and other constructions is organized in Belgium. He thinks the general building policy should be rational and organized, the details should be left to the ingenuity of the owner. Instead of hiding cables, tubes and trains, he proposes to make them visible. The speedway should go underground, the users of public transport should be able to oversee landscapes and cities. Second-hand oil tankers should be turned into traveling universities. All Deleu’s propositions take shape in models that are exhibited. During the preparations of this exhibition he was traveling around the world on a cargo ship and he cabled us a photograph of the equator. The exhibited multiple shows the interior of a building that can be built vertically and horizontally at the same time. It’s the architectural outcome of the project Scale and Perspective inspired by the giant tree The Fallen Monarch, a project for which he had hoisting-cranes and power pylons laid down on the ground to make their true dimensions more visible.

23

‘Equator W 100° 28’ 679’ - 1999
Computer print, 29,7 x 21 cm


24
Title unknown - 1991
Edition, numbered 20/25
Plexi-glass, cardboard, 12,3 x 12,3 x 12,3 cm




FILIP DENIS

Filip Denis is a painter and sculptor. His big paintings and tiny sculptures often show objects which seem to be granted a comic grace. “When I was small,” he wrote, “I traced my mother along the house following the objects she forgot everywhere: jewelry, letters and empty perfume bottles she left in shoeboxes in the back of her wardrobe, silk stockings on the dining table, a shirt on the back of a chair, her dancing shoes under the bed. Now I paint the objects, as if the owners just left the image. The envelopes fly away because he or she just slammed the door.”

25
‘Axe’ - 1999
Pencil and color pencil on paper.

26
‘Butcher’s’ - 1999
Pencil and color pencil on pink paper.

27
‘Pocketknife’ - 1999
Pencil and color pencil on paper.

28
‘Air Mail’ - 1999
Pencil and color pencil on paper.

29
‘Hoop’ - 1999
Pencil and color pencil on paper bag.

30
‘Knife’ - 1996
Painted wood.

31
‘Pocketknife’ - 1996
Painted wood and iron.

32
‘Envelopes’ - 1999
Pencil and color pencil on paper.

33
‘Shoebox’ - 1999
Pencil and color pencil on paper.

34
‘Fishing Hook’ - 1999
Pencil and color pencil on paper.

35
‘Pinnochio’ - 1992
Model of big painting, acrylic paint on wood.

36
‘Hat’ - 1993
Model of big painting, acrylic paint on wood.

37
‘Light Light (Big Envelopes)’ - 1999
Canvas, acrylic paint, wire and painted wood.

38
‘Envelope and Letter’ - 1999
Canvas, acrylic paint, wire and painted wood.

39
‘Shoebox’ - 1999
Canvas, acrylic paint, wire and painted wood.

40
‘Zippo’ -1996
Painted wood and iron.

41
‘Comma’ -1974
Painted wood.



ELS DIETVORST

Els Dietvorst makes large scale installations, sculptures and drawings. Her sculptures are composed of wood and loam (heavy, sticky clay which turns almost to stone when dry.) Her work often relates directly to the space in which it is placed.
The content of the work is more complex. Els Dietvorst tries to create animalistic though human situations where people seem to be decaying or regenerating themselves or their habitats. The sculptures are born, pushed through the hole of the city into a world where they are facing both past and future in one glance.
For ‘Small Stuff’, Els Dietvorst has chosen to show parts of sculptures, drawings and three photographs of a large-scale installation in her studio. The drawings are preparation drawings for larger wall pieces.

42
‘Five Eggs’ (1994-99)
Wooden and loam sculptures, approximately 30 x 20 x 20 cm.

43
Untitled (1998-99)
A series of ink drawings. Self made ink on simili paper.

44
‘The Big Skull’ - 1999
Three proofings of color photographs of the big, loam sculpture that was shown in Antwerp during the months of May and June of this year.



CHRISTOPH FINK

Christoph Fink’s work tries to retrace, describe or capture experiences he meets while travelling. Concentration levels peak at these moments. He walks, flies, cycles and takes buses and trains.
The work starts taking shape during the journey itself, when the artist observes, measures, checks, and takes down every possible experience with his body confronting the landscape in the largest sense of the word.
All these events or experiences are minutely timed with one or two stopwatches (one that measures the intervals and one that measures the overall time) and written on small pieces of paper or notebooks. Later these descriptions and experiences are translated into drawings, pictures, texts and sculptures.

45
‘World Map Projected on Horizon Line – Flight Brussels New York, Monday 20th 1999’ – 1999
Drawing on pillar of the gallery.

On the base:

46
‘Map + Index First Passage through São Paulo – 1996
80,9 x 71,4 cm

47
‘Cumulus Nimbus between São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, from 10.000 meters of Altitude’ – 1996
Color photograph (30,5 x 46,2 cm)

48
‘5 Cities from Monday 05.13.1991, 4.52 p.m.
until Thursday 06.13.1991, 2.40 p.m.’ – 1994
Cylinder shaped wire sculpture, paint, paper (17,5 x 32,7 cm)

49
First Passage through São Paulo, Flights - 1996
Wire sculpture consisting of two parts
A:
Height: 71 cm
Diameter: 34 cm
Wire, paint.
B:
Height: 23 cm
Diameter: 34 cm

In the showcase:

50
‘Study of a Flight Brussels – Glasgow – Brussels, May / October 1998’ – 1998
Pencil and ball point pen on paper (45,2 x 37 cm)

51
“Image of the Dutch City of Eindhoven, thinking about urbanization, folding pages from a catalogue, ‘Third Walk’” – 1998
24 x 77 cm

52
‘Notebook’ – 1987
Open: 15 x 22, several journey reports

53
‘Notebook’ – 1986
Open: 10,5 x 15 cm, journey report France

54
Climbing the Furka – 1995
Collage of six panoramic color photographs (25 x 8,8 cm)

55
‘Notebook’ – 1991
Journey through North-America, May-June 1991
Notebook (made by Fink) and postcard.
Notebook, open: 32,7 x 10,8 cm
Postcard: ‘The Boeing 767, a sleek twin-jet aircraft…’ (8,9 x 14 cm)

56
‘Notebook’ – 1992
Notebook made by Fink.
Open: 10,7 x 32,4 cm
Journey through the Alps, winter 1992

57
‘Meteora’ – 1983
Soft pencil on paper from the twenties or thirties (34,5 x 27 cm)
Dated: “Augustus ‘83”

58
‘Wrong route’ – 1971
Pencil on paper, 27 x 36 cm.
Signed in blue ball point pen left upper corner: “Chr. ‘71”



MICHEL FRANÇOIS

By turning objects upside down, back-to-front or inside out, Michel François forces them back into their material state, so that although they become more ‘concrete’, they also become more ‘abstract’. You might say that they lose their figurative strength because their appearance has been tampered with. They are emasculated, distracted. The idea, though, is not to make non-functional objects, but to take a different look at that same objects. François tinkers with the images of these things in order to make the things themselves, or our relationship with them, visible.
The curious thing about François' work is that these inversions and shifts in position endow it with the character of a continuous reflection on sculpture. In classical sculpture, material is removed or added. Anyone who has watched a good sculptor at work knows that he observes the surrounding space just as keenly as the sculpture itself. At a certain point you no longer know whether he or she is taking something away from the sculpture or adding volume to the air around it.
The moment you start to notice this, you see that François' work is constantly seesawing. What is positive becomes negative. What is convex becomes concave. What is compact falls apart and what was scattered comes together. White becomes black, what was transparent becomes opaque. Every equilibrium is momentary. The more useful soap is, the quicker it disappears. An accumulation of white little balls has the opposite structure of foam or a sponge. The ball of string is very solid, but if you pull the string from its inside, its structure desintegrates.

59
‘Sponge with tiny styrofoam balls’ -- 1997
Approximately 20 cm diameter

60
Untitled – 1996
Ball of string, plaster and tiny styrofoam balls, approximately 13 x 13 x 13 cm

61
‘Fire-eater’ - 1998
Color photographs, 260 x 15,5 cm

62
Untitled
Big and small black soap

63
Untitled
Two piles of paper. All the pages of one pile bear the printed words ‘Not decided’ and the pages of the other pile ‘Decided’. For this show, both piles are equal.

64
Untitled
Plaster mold of the wrappings of a duster, approximately 3 x 22 x 16 cm

65
Untitled
Plaster mold of a brown bag, approximately 24 x 15 x 15 cm

65,5
Two posters
One black and white and one color poster, 47 x 69,5 inches
The color poster shows a picture taken during a collaboration with prisoners in a Dutch detention clinic.



ANN VERONICA JANSSENS

The works of Ann Veronica Janssens are very often small moves that tend to change our perception of an object or a space. The work can be an extra floor for a gallery, consisting of concrete blocks; a small sign drawing one’s attention to a shimmering line of light on a plinth; a tube piercing a gallery wall and revealing a squatted house on the other side of the wall; or a mirror that reflects part of the floor and creates an endless floor or makes a wall hover. Sometimes it seems she wants to make the light tangible, sometimes one thinks she wants to liquify all matter.

66
‘Le bain de lumière’ (The Bath of Light) - 1993-99
Four fish bowls, water and a roll of adhesive tape 95 x 22,5 cm.
Prototype of a smaller edition.

67
Untitled (Lens) - 1991-99
Cylindrical glass recipient filled with water, methanol and a sphere of silicone
Diameter: 5,8 inches
Height: 14,3 inches

68
Untitled (Lens) - 1994
Glass pane with engraved metal plate glued to it.
30,5 x 36,5 cm.
Edition, signed and numbered: ‘2/12 Janssens’

69
‘Volume of Air’ - 1999
Two glass panes of 30 x 35 cm, placed on top and on the white painted bottom of a glass showcase of some 40 x 135 x 66 cm. The matching position of the glass panes creates the illusion of misty sides of a volume.

70
‘Sketch’ - 1999
Prototype of a plinth exhibited in the Museum of Modern Arts in Brussels (1987). This plinth reflects the floor in such a way that we get the impression to walk on top of a flattened pyramid.
10 X 225 x 0,5 cm)
Titled, dated, numbered and signed: ‘Sketch, 25th Mai 1999, Ann Veronica, 1/1 (as many yards as you want)’.

71
‘Glass Tube’ - 1992-93
Apparently luminescent glass tube with round polished ends, resting on two needles
Length: 57 cm
Diameter: 1,7 cm

72
‘Leisure and survival’ (Flashlight) - 1995
Prototype of an edition, numbered: … / 30

73
‘Léone’, ‘Anna’, ‘Cyriel’ - 1997-99
Three CD’s with songs, sung by Léone, Anna and Cyriel.
‘Cyriel’ was the song one could here in the Belgian pavillion filled with mist for the Venice Biennial of 1999.

74
‘Liquid crystal’ - 1999
Color photographs of tests with the "Liquid Crystal Cushions" in Utrecht, May 1999

75
15.000 Florins - 1999
Dutch coins with silver stickers that bear inscriptions like ‘1 Night of ecstasy, 3 seconds of Concorde, 44 cm3 of oxygen, 0,7 MB of memory, 108 seconds of silence’. These coins were distributed among the visitors of the exhibition.

76
‘6.000.000 Lire’ - 1999
Eight coins of 100 lire, coming from a series of 1000 coins marked with silver stickers stating in Italian how much of a certain thing one can buy with the coin: 0,0012 grams of meteorite, 53 seconds of silence, 0,3 Megabyte, 21 cm3 of oxygen, 30 seconds of ecstasy, and so on. These coins were used as small change in the bookshop and the cafeterias of the Venice Biennial of 1999.

77
‘100.000 Lire’ - 1999
Five engraved coins that found themselves in a basket near the box office of the Scuola Grande de San Rocco in Venice during the Venice Biennial of 1999. Anybody who wanted could take some.

78
0900-8991118 - 1999
Free telephone card distributed among the visitors of the Utrecht ‘Super Space’ exhibition, allowing the owner to call to an answering machine that played all the messages the artist had received during the preparation of the exhibition.

[Note: The works 75, 76, 77 and 78 have been installed by Joelle Tuerlinckx, who threw them like dice in the showcase.]

79
Tape ‘Leisure and survival’ - 1994
Example of a series of rolls of tape bearing the same inscription in four different languages, distributed to the public of the XXIInd Biennial of São Paulo (1994).

80
Phosphenes - 1998
Photocopied fliers of a picture of two men pressing their eyeballs and the text: "Phosphenes, a micro organic exploration. A nomadic and visual proposition.
If you press your closed eyes with your fingertips, colored and luminous geometric patterns will appear in the eye."

81
A2 -- 1999
Video

82
‘Rushes’
Video showing images of the ‘Projection of a round form’ with a Cyberlight projector in the Dutch town of Middelburg and of the mist-sculpture in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp.



RAWA KARI

Rawa Kari makes music with objects. "Those objects already have a music," he says, "I just take it and mix it." He now shows a picture of an orange he used recently in a composition with music of fruits.

83
Color photograph, 50 x 70 cm



VIVIANE KLAGSBRUN

Viviane Klagsbrun makes paintings that amaze us by their precision and simplicity. Very often they seem nothing but charcoal drawings with some apparently haphazardly thrown colored surfaces, but they hit you like a fist.
Sometimes these paintings are very delicate, sometimes their boots are made for walking and they walk straight to pain and ugliness. The images they convey stick to our hearts and make us think of the best paintings by Fassbinder, Cassavetes, Flaubert, Paul Léautaud, Jean Rhys, Kathy Acker and Jeannette Winterson. For this show Viviane Klagsbrun presents some small drawings and paintings.

84
‘Fainting Lady’
Digital montage
Inkjet print, 29 x 20,5 (without frame)

85
‘Little Man’
Pencil on canvas, 10 x 7 cm

86
‘Kiss on the Hand (Man and Woman)’
Charcoal and color pencil on paper, 16 x 12 cm.

87
‘Fainting Lady’
Charcoal on paper, 32 x 24 cm

88
‘Accident’
Pencil on paper, 32 x 24 cm

89
‘The Kidnapping I’
Charcoal on paper, 24 x 32 cm

89,5
‘The Kidnapping II’
Charcoal on paper, 24 x 32 cm

90
‘Windmill’
Oil on canvas, 13 x 18 cm

91
‘Man and Woman’
Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 cm



BERND LOHAUS


Bernd Lohaus is best known for his sculptures with big beams of wood that already have been used in the port of Antwerp. The poetry of his work resides in the encounter between the solidity, the power and the weather-beaten or used looks of these beams and the delicate equilibrium with which they are posed or put together. Lohaus also paints less known water colors of flowers.

92
‘Flower’
Water color, signed in pencil, 21 x 14,8 cm (framed: 32 x 25,5 cm)



WILLEM OOREBEEK

"It is sheer interest for printed material that makes me first collect it and then print it over with a plain black surface. Basically it could be anything that I like seeing as a ‘black-out’. Black-outs are protected & saved images, freed from reality. Black-out what you like!"

93
‘Black Out DiCaprio’ - 1999
Printed poster, covered with black ink through lithography.

94
‘Black Out Nick Nolte’ - 1999
Page from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.

95
‘Black Out Smoking Kills’ - 1999
Two pages from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.

96
‘Black Out SOS Suceuses’ – 1999
Two pages from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.

97
‘Black Out Portraits’ - 1999
Page from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.

98
‘Black Out The Royal Marriage’ - 1999
Page from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.

99
‘Black Out Baudelaire’ - 1999
Page from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.

100
‘Black Out Purity of the Alps’ - 1999
Page from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.

101
‘Black Out Joëlle Tuerlinckx’ - 1999
Invitation card to an exhibition, covered with black ink through lithography.

102
‘Black Out Super Space’ - 1999
Invitation card to an exhibition of Ann Veronica Janssens, covered with black ink through lithography.

103
‘Black Out Van Dyck’ - 1999
Invitation card to an exhibition, covered with black ink through lithography.

104
‘Black Out La belezza di Marie Claire’ - 1999
Page from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.

105
‘Black Out The Sky on the Day Diana Died’ - 1999
Page from a magazine, covered with black ink through lithography.


PANAMARENKO

106
‘Polistes with Antennas’ – 1975
Drawing made in Bergeyk of the Polistes rubber Car
Approximately: 20 x 27 cm

107
‘K2 Mountain and Jungle Flying Machine’ – 1992
Titled and signed on the back in silver-tipped pen



GUY ROMBOUTS EN MONICA DROSTE

Guy Rombouts and Monica Droste created a colorful oeuvre that evolves around taxonomy, tiny objects and a self-made alphabet, in which the shape of the letters corresponds to the shape of an object whose name begins with that letter: e.g. ‘h’ for hairpin, ‘i’ for inlet, ‘p’ for peristaltic, ‘w’ for ‘wavy’, and so on.

108
‘Alphabet’
This sculpture consists of all the letters of our alphabet, in which each letter is combined once or twice with itself to create a surface.
Wire, approximately 32 x 16 x 16 cm



GERRY SMITH

109
‘In the Park in June’ - 1999
Oil on board, 31 x 48 cm

110
‘Witches and Helicopters’ - 1999
Oil on board, 28 x 44 cm

111
‘Tarzan’ - 1994
Acrylic on wood, 9 x 16,6 cm

112
‘Your own two feet’ - 1994
Acrylic on board, 9,5 x 18 cm

113
Three postcards and one small photograph



OLIVIER STEVENART

Olivier Stevenart is a worker who cleans, paints or renovates houses. His work consists of two main parts: 1) Knowing how to to the job (Savoir faire) and 2) Knowing how to receive people (Savoir recevoir).
The first part, ‘Knowing how to do the job’, includes three phases: the preparation of the job, the job itself and the finishing touch. A job well done is a well structured job. One has to know how to clean the working place before and after the job. One has to know how to get down to it and how to end it. At the end of the job, Olivier Stevenart invites people to have a drink and enjoy the finished job. For example, in May 1999, he invited people to ‘Fix and Finish’, an exhibition on the occasion of a floor job that consisted out of the coloring and waxing of wooden boards.
The photographs exhibited in this show are what is left over of a performance in a huge glass house where the floor was covered with dead pigeons and droppings.

114
‘Epandage de chaux sous verrière. Performance "Ce qui reste" le jeudi 24 juin 1999’ O.S.T.S.A
Color photograph showing a masked man in front of a brick wall, 23 x 38 cm, framed: 33 x 48 cm. Numbered 1/6

115
‘Epandage de chaux sous verrière. Performance "Ce qui reste" le jeudi 24 juin 1999’ O.S.T.S.A
Color photograph showing Stevenart sowing a cloud of chalk, 23 x 38 cm, framed: 33 x 48 cm. Numbered: 1/1



WALTER SWENNEN

Walter Swennen would describe himself with an anecdote. He paints. His dream is to be able to ‘paint whatsoever’, just to prove that painting has nothing to do with expressing oneself. He likes what Chklovski wrote about it: that art is nothing but the creation of objects with a different ‘texture’. Everything is in the texture and in the beholder’s mind.
In his paintings one cannot see any difference between a so-called figurative or abstract approach. Background and foreground intertwine. Funny characters and gloomy atmospheres bump into one another. An elegant beauty and a tendency to ugliness meet in counterpoint struck compositions of a European jazzman.

116
Untitled - 1999
Oil on canvas (23,5 x 18 cm)

117
Untitled - 1999
Oil on wood (24,8 x 20,6 cm)

118
‘Untitled (Toeternitoe ­ Eternité)’
Approximately 20 x 15 cm (framed)

119
‘-20%’
Painted glass pane, used as a slide to make a big picture, approximately 5 x 5 cm.

120
‘The Red Book’
Replica of Swennen’s own copy of Mao’s Red Book, adapted to the insights of our time.
Wood, hinges, red linen bookmarker, with green plastic covered wire.
Approximately 12 x 18, x 2.5 cm



HERMAN TEIRLINCK

121
Herman Teirlinck was a major Belgian novelist throughout the thirties, forties and fifties. A small showcase shows us his mountain cane, his binoculars, a picture of the writer in the Alps and a copy of his book ‘The Man in the Mirror’. The show also contains a plaster sculpture representing his head.
Also to be found in the tiny Teirlinck showcase: a picture made by the director of the Herman Teirlinck Museum Kris Vanhemelrijck of a school visiting the Small Stuff show in June 1999.



KOEN THEYS

The individual in Koen Theys works likes to hide among the masses, but is afraid to disappear. It endlessly creates, fabricates and tries to reproduce itself, like a spider which has become its own web. The works question the possibility of individuality, while at the same time they attempt to constitute one.
A recurrent theme in Koen Theys’ work is the conception of his own oeuvre as a mole’s hole, with underground and surfacing counterparts.
Recently Koen Theys doubled benches, dustbins, lanterns and signposts in municipal parks. Instead of one signpost and lantern one finds two of them.
The five photographs of kindergartens are part of a vast survey of the way children are taught how to draw and play in Belgian kindergartens.
Currently Koen Theys is preparing an exhibition in a French bank, presenting this bank as a photographer, showing pictures its real estate division made of its own constructions throughout France.

122
‘Studies for the Burrow, Attempt to Put some Order in my Work’ (1995-99)
A:
Series of 29 drawings and 4 laserprints. Pencil, felt-tipped pen and blue ballpoint on paper. Quick drawings, calculations and reflections such as ‘Petit commerce, oui. Mais de quoi?’ (A small commerce, yes, but selling what?)
B:
‘Cardboard Staircase’ - 1997
Approximately: 27 x 31 x 4,2 cm.
C:
‘Study for the burrow’ - 1997
Grey cardboard wall with tiny staircases and corridors (24 x 16 x 4 mm).
D:
‘Study for junk closet¬¬¬’ - 1997
Acrylic paint on transparent film (56,3 x 112 cm ­ without frame)
E:
‘Study for the burrow’ (1997-99)
Wire, transparent film, acrylic paint, small metal rings, with images of all the existing works in 1997. Approximately: 25 x 30 x 28 cm.
F:
‘Study for the burrow)’ - 1997
Balsa wood, little nails, pigment, acrylic paint (9,8 x 20 x 17 cm)
G:
‘Study for the burrow’ - 1997
Cardboard, computer print, ball point pen (20 x 25 x 30 cm)
H:
‘Rorschach’s burrow’ - 1997
Cardboard (9 x 43,8 x 1 cm)
I:
‘Tangle’ - 1995
Polyurethane rubber (10,5 x 22 x 48 cm)
J:
‘Composition with socks’ – 1998
Color photograph (21,4 x 30,5 cm)

123
‘Children’s Rooms’ – 1999
Series of five color photographs, 46 x 30,5 cm.
First viewing of a series of color photographs made in 150 kindergartens in and around Brussels.

124
‘Two door handles’ - 1997
Polyurethane rubber

125
‘Wall ventilator’ – 1995
Polyurethane rubber. Approximately: 20 x 15 cm

126
‘Two calculators’ - 1996
Polyurethane rubber (1 x 7,5 x 13,5 cm)



JOELLE TUERLINCKX

The work of Joëlle Tuerlinckx is concerned with time. The objects she preserves, shows or creates carry her experience of time. Spatial measurement entirely depends on contingency. Measuring sticks from different, often transparent materials demarcate the spot where something has been or will perhaps be. A hovering ribbon in the windy garden of a museum, shimmering and disappearing like a dotted line, indicates a potential building spot or an archeological site. Two identical, round pink table tops are exhibited together. One is painted every time they are exhibited, the other isn’t. The slight difference in the layers of pink paint will gradually differentiate them more and more.
For the first part of this exhibition, Tuerlinckx chose the themes of ‘the leftovers of the leftovers’ and ‘drops.’
For the second part she wants to start from her ‘Theory of Walking,’ which consists of the notes she takes preparing and organizing an exhibition, and the way these notes start creating sentences and meanings of their own. For example, the combination of the sentence ‘How to be a woman’ with the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday results in the new ideas ‘How to be a woman Monday,’ ‘How to be a woman Tuesday,’ and so on.
One might say that this approach is typical for Tuerlinckx’ work, which is generaly situated on the meeting point between the past of her own work and the past, present and future of the museum or gallery she exhibits in. For every show she brings new works and old ones, that are combined and crossed-over in an formally endlessly shifting renewal or flashback.

127
“Proposition for ‘Small Stuff’ New York – Wall Segments and Agenda Notes”
- White Wall Segment – 9 circular elements made of graph paper
- Pink Wall Segment – 8 elements made of the invitation card of the Rheims exhibition
- Dark Blue Wall Segment – 47 elements – proposition
- Newspaper Wall Segment (made with the Financieel Economische Tijd’, received on the plane, September 20th and with a variety of other newspapers, modern and ancient – 24 elements, varying dimensions. This work includes a possibility for the buyer to choose his favorite newspaper and decide on the length of the work.
- Floor Segments of circular glass panes
- Agenda Notes
- One slide projected on the wall: like a model for the positioning of works of art on the wall

In the showcase:
- Wall Segment – 5 red elements on the original plan of the Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery - project for ‘Small Stuff’ New York + Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery
- Agenda notes - October 25th
- Agenda notes – August 17th 1998
- Agenda notes – Sunday September 20th
- Agenda notes – Wednesday April 25th
- Agenda notes – Thursday January 9th, Friday January 10th 1992
- Agenda notes – Monday 2nd Week 6
- Agenda notes – Saturday June 10th
- Agenda notes – Tuesday March 3rd – Mardi-gras

- Slides used in exhibitions in Munich, Brussels and Lisbon
- Books ‘Theory of Walking’, stemming from several exhibitions
- Original Notes of the films ‘Arbeitsnotizen’ Berlin and ‘Exhibition Notes’ (version Lisbon and Frac Champagne), dots on paper napkins and cardboard
- Index Cards of Numbers, Index Cards of Time – Exhibition Material

On the showcase:
- Measuring Sticks, Destiny Sticks, Paint Sticks
[Sticks that have been used to stir paint in museums and galleries. Later they are used as measuring sticks or models. The one with the red paint was used during the preparation of this exhibition to stir the red paint for Richard Venlet’s corner. The one with pink paint was used to paint the round pink table (mentioned in the introduction) on which for the ‘This is a Book like a Book’ Exhibition 107 different books of the photocopied collection of pink books. The white one was used to stir the white paint for the work ‘ The White Moment’ for which Tuerlinckx painted part of a long corridor white in a Government building.
- 4 Model-Projects: ‘Objet Belgique’, Model-Project 15 x 15 x 15 for future grays, Model-Project ‘A’ + Destiny Stick ‘Film’

128
“Destiny Stick ‘A’ on White Base”
Proposition to give the exhibition or the gallery the name ‘A’

129
One page of a set of pages that might be added to existing publications (enlarged or reduced)

130
‘Les oiseaux du parlement.’ Projet n° 9’ –
(The Birds of the Congress. Project n° 9) - 1998
Blueprint of the Belgian Congress’ building, 81 x 85 cm, and 8 cut out and pinned depictions of birds. This rejected project for a work of art in the Belgian Congress consisted of the taming and ringing of birds that would live in the main court. Migrant birds as well.

131
‘The Small Stuff Exhibition’s Potato (Beersel)’ - 1999
As soon as Joëlle Tuerlinckx is invited for an exhibition she wants to participate in, she puts a potato somewhere. The aspect of the changing potato reflects the age of the exhibition.
Potato, tooth pick and paper flag with the handwritten inscription ‘Exposition’ and an arrow consisting of a dotted line pointing in the direction of Belgium, the crate, the exit or the past.

132
‘The Small Stuff Exhibition’s Potato (New York)’ - 1999
‘Since it’s forbidden to import vegetables privately into the States, for this exhibition we asked Ruth Phaneuf to pick a potato. For this, she received the amiable assistance of her husband Christopher.
Golden Yukon potato, tooth pick and paper flag with the handwritten inscription ‘Exhibition’ and an arrow consisting of a dotted line pointing in the direction of the exhibition or the future.

133
‘Chairs’ - 1996
Six chairs of 187 numbered chairs from the 1996 ‘Ring und Raumausstellung’ in the European City of Classical Music Salzburg. For this exhibition Tuerlinckx had to share an exhibition room with another artist. She proposed to divide the exhibition in time. During the first half of the show the other artist took the big exhibition room, while Tuerlinckx put a bunch of piled up chairs next to the entrance. She numbered these chairs by hand. Together with some other interventions, this installation created the impression that something important was going to happen later. At the end of the exhibition the museum couldn’t pay her. She asked to be paid with ten of the numbered chairs. Exhibited numbers: 0,5,9,1,8,2

134
‘Balls and Little Balls – Memory of Different Exhibitions ’ (1994-99)

135
‘”La libellule”, a sculpture by Joëlle Tuerlinckx and “Le requin”, a sculpture by Koen Theys, in “Fable de plage”, a film by Joëlle Tuerlinckx, 24’, June 1999. Video.

136
Table – Working Poem – 1999
Video, 15’

138
‘Working Notes – Frac Champagne’ - 1999
Video, 34’

139
‘Taille d’objet, taille d’homme’ (Size of an Object, Size of a Man) - 1990
This work consists of a sewing thread that originally had the same length as an object or a person (Tuerlinckx forgot about this one), combined with an indefinite number of knots that, according to secret physical laws, tend to happen on the same three or four spots. At both ends the thread is attached to a pin, to attach it to the wall.

140
‘Walking and thinking and walking. Musique d’exposition, composée et jouée par Joëlle Tuerlinckx’ - 1996
CD



MICHAEL VAN DEN ABEELE

141
Untitled
Fragment of a sculpture. Wooden box with rubber stops for doors (twelve in total, 10 gray and two white ones)
13 x 39 x 31,5 cm.

142
‘Mise en monte’
Printed on blue paper, 27 x 36 cm

143
‘Mise en monte’
Printed on green paper, 27 x 36 cm

144
‘Buffer Zonale’
Pencil on lined paper, 20,5 x 16,3 cm

145
‘Clouds I’ - 1999
Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 cm

146
‘Clouds II’ - 1999
Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 cm

147
‘Clouds XV’ – 1999
Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 cm



WEIN VAN DEN BROUCKE

Wein Van den Broucke likes to confuse people by building big sculptures at unexpected places, using doors, windows and other used materials. One of these was a cabin consisting of 12 used doors that all could open, in the middle of an industrial building. The doors came from the toilets and offices on the same floor. Another sculpture consisted of a construction with big glass apartment doors behind the window of a shop, slowly moving away from and towards the window, as to create a changing, transparent perspective. At another exhibition (‘Curo’) Van den Broucke built a four meter high cage with seventeen metal spring-constructions to be used in beds. A model of this last sculpture is to be seen at this show.

148
Untitled - 1999
Cardboard box, white cardboard, cut out black and white pictures of windows.
Approximately 32 x 49 x 35 cm

149
Untitled – 1998
Model for a sculpture made of bed-springs.
Steel frames, gummed tape, black yarn, 36 x 18 x 18 cm

150
‘In Curo’ – 1998
Black and white copy of a photograph of Michel Kolenberg cycling in front of the installation with bed-springs in Brussels, 22 x 29 cm



RICHARD VENLET

Richard Venlet creates order and clarity. His humor is quasi-undetectable. Maybe it is translucent.
At times Venlet reproduces existing architectural elements; other times he cuts into the architectural tissue. He paints corners of spaces to invite the visitors to imagine the space in the new color. (Sometimes it is almost impossible to distinguish the painted corner from the rest of the walls.) Venlet shows white painted cardboard cubical boxes presented in plexi-glass cubical envelopes. He shows wooden, cubical structures, illuminated by one, strong lamp, which hangs down from the ceiling and is surrounded by the structure.

151
‘Costa Brava’ - 1986
Fourteen pieces of brick, rounded by the sea and washed ashore, covered with fragments from a real estate brochure, cut out in the same shape as the brick fragments.

152
‘Red Corner’ - 1999
Corner painted red with Stelatex Classic Interior-Exterior Vermilion for walls and ceilings.
Dimensions vary.

153
‘Study for installation in Galeria Antoni Estrany, Barcelona’ - 1996
Wood, screws, pencil (17,5 x 26,5 x 35,5 cm)

154
‘Lego’ - 1998
Color photograph, 13 x 9 cm

154,5
‘Guilliana’
Black and white photograph (10,5 x 14,7 cm)

155
‘APP BXL’ – 1997
Pages of number 66 of the art magazine ‘De Witte Raaf,’ put under plastic cover. First shown during an exhibition for which Venlet had painted white the windows of a gallery.

156
Six Posters for the Biennial of Sydney’ - 1998
Each: 102 x 76 cm

157
‘Untitled’ – 1997
Video loop, appr. 3’



ANGEL VERGARA

Angel Vergara is the artist of the encounter. Whether he does performances as ‘Street Man’ (drawing what he feels and hears while being hidden under a white sheet); receives people in shops, ice-cream parlors or pubs he runs temporarily in galleries or museums; or proposes multiple kinds of transactions to the visitors, he is always looking for the surplus value that results from these interactions. His drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations are the instruments and witnesses of this practice.

158
‘Reportage Kassel’ (Documentary Kassel) - 1992
Four drawings from a series of eleven drawings made by Street Man at the IXth Documenta of Kassel.
Pencil and colored pencil on paper (35 x 50 cm)

159
‘Ardoises du café de la Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles’ (Slates from the pub in Marie-Puck Broodthaers’ gallery) - 1992
Six slates with the debts owed by Koen Theys (paid), Walter Swennen (255 fr.), Picabia (190 fr.), Michel François (5390 fr.), Joëlle Tuerlinckx (500 fr.) and Jan Vercruysse (5000 fr.)

160
‘Reims’ (Street Man Drawing in the French City of Rheims) - 1996
Color photograph, glued on plastic, 36 x 24 cm

161
‘Straatman (Antwerps ijs)’ (Street Man Selling Ice Cream in the City of Antwerp) - 1988
Black and white photograph, 29,5 x 42 cm (without frame)