extraneous work (3): writing about art, presenting art

[you will by now understand that the word `extraneous' in the series' title is meant thus: `not immediately pertaining to the creation of art'.]

i write about art in different ways, one important way is this blog. but i also have two other art blogs, in dutch. the first of those is called trijntje fop gaat op de schop. it is an extensive tribute to the many many artists that inspire / have inspired me. it takes the form of poetry, specifically light verse, with animals as characters. the name `trijntje fop' comes from multatuli's ideas (multatuli = eduard douwes dekker, see the previous post), from a famous and hilarious passage containing school children's poetry. it was taken as a nom de plume by the dutch poet kees stip (1913-2001). the name is currently used to describe light poetry with the following style characteristics:

• about 1 or more animals (`on a ...' ) with typical human characteristics - as in de la fontaine's work
• abundance of spoonerisms.
• 2 to ... lines, mostly 6 lines in aabbcc form.

most of my trijntje fops are about a specific artist, where the 'punchline' usually consists of some wordplay on the artist's name. i illustrate these poems with relevant artworks and background information, which is where the real work creeps in. all in all i've written some 200 trijntje fops so far...which was a lot of work. to give an idea, let me present my latest trijntje fop -not about a specific artist- below:

op n tasmaanse duivel en n duivelsrog


briest thea tasmaanse duivel:
`alleen maar banaan met zuivel?
vervloekt zij wie steeds ons hellevoer
weer boekt bij die zweedse melkboer!'

de helleveeg eist n vragenuur:
voor welk beest spijst t vagevuur?

`besef toch' sust dragan duivelsrog
de chefkok van satans ruif en trog
`aan types als bok beëlzebub
heeft íedere kok n helse club

de stamppotstampij
van harry harpij!
of maak maar ns snert voor ruziester
en drama queen slechtvalk lucifer

misschien stopt de hel met kniezen
indien k ze zelf laat kiezen?'

bel nu 666 voor vlammetjes!
-of stuur sms voor bammetjes



tasmaanse duivel
(foto chen wu)



duivelsrog
(mobula mobular, foto david sim)



bok
(tekening van de sève, gravure van c. baquoy, in  illustrations de histoire naturelle générale et particulière avec la description du cabinet du roy, tome v, 1755)



harpij
(foto bjørn christian tørrissen) 



slechtvalk 
(john james audubon, uit the birds of america)



waterspuwer harpij (mythologisch)
(foto véronique pagnier)



duivel = satan, beëlzebub, lucifer
(tarotkaart van pamela colman smith)


drama queen: iemand die graag van een mug een olifant maakt; vlammetjes: scherpe snack, bammetjes: boterhammetjes

john james audubon, for example, features here. what an incredible artist! the world of art is very strange, for the recognition of audubon is no doubt formidable, yet one does not usually see his works in art museums, nor is he usually mentioned in art history books. [one reason of course is that his main work is contained in the incredible book birds of america (link to digital version, only 120 complete sets exist), and it is hard to display books]. anyway, the older i get, the less i understand of this world. but the less i care, too, for fitting in, for understanding...what i perceive as the general insanity of our society.

(in the trijntje fops i often comment ironically on this general craziness.)

outsider art 2: adolf wölfli

much as i would like to be able to find the time to keep up this blog in a steady flow of thought, this turns out to be an illusion. the price to pay for having too much projects in my head.

snippets is what i'll be writing, just until my other blog `trijntje fop gaat op de schop' (freely translated `trijntje fop goes art, revised') is finished (see this older post on trijntje fop). and i also write a blog for my students, since i teach a course `image & world' at the unit academy in nijmegen -call it `art philosophy'-...time consuming.

anyway, here some pictures of works by famous outsider artist adolf wölfli (please read!, it saves me the writing here...):


adolf wölfli, london north


adolf wölfli, general view of the island of neveranger

######

perhaps indicative of my own outsiderness, i have always felt a strong connectedness to many works from outsider artists, also from psychiatric patients. in the next post i will turn again to some recent own work.

trees, hills

trees, hills (own work, 80 x 110 cm, acrylic and ink on canvas, 2009)

just a new painting, which i'll be showing in an upcoming short exhibition. i also managed to take some pictures of a statuette which i borrowed back from the owner, i think i might put them up also.

see previous two posts: my trijntje-fop-blog is still taking up most of my writing energy, sorry. i managed to revise around 55 of the around 160 trijntje fop poems now, that means i'm going to be tied up quite some time still to come. but i'm strangely satisfied with these light poems, with all their connotations and (hyper)links to the art world and beyond.

on a bonobo and a chimpanzee (see previous post)

on a bonobo and a chimpanzee

did artist yoko bonobo
completely out of mikado
construct for hiroshige's lobster
`jacuzzi with yakuza mobster'?

the ape clams up mysteriously
but still complains imperiously
`they never take me seriously'

chimp saatchi: `who knows? years ago
she built in downtown tokyo
her christ in tub with giorgio
committing in this spirito
artistic harachirico'



utagawa hiroshige, 2 shrimp and a lobster


giorgio de chirico, christ and the storm


giorgio de chirico, mystery and melancholy of a street


yoko ono, touch me

yoko ono: once partner of john lennon, bonobo: great ape, jacuzzi: warmwater whirlpool, yakuza: japanese mafia, mobster: mafioso, charles saatchi: owner of saatchi gallery, harakiri: ritual japanese suicide

for this trijntje fop some background on de chirico is useful, see an essay by robert hughes

above a typical example (or non-typical since it is in english) of what i've been working on. silly light verse, but with lots of art pictures and art references, also largely as a hommage to the many artists who have inspired me.

trijntje fop goes art

sorry to not have posted any more recently. there was a reason, pretty predictable: i'm writing on another blog called trijntje fop gaat op de schop. a crazy undertaking, to be honest. mostly silly rhymes, mostly in dutch, mostly about art, in a style called `trijntje fop'

trijntje fop is a nom de plume of the dutch poet kees stip (1913-2001). the name is currently used to describe light poetry with the following style characteristics :

1. light!


2. see 1.


3. about 1 or more animals (`on a ...' ) with typical human characteristics - as in de la fontaine's work.


4. abundance of spoonerisms.


5. 2 to ... lines, mostly 6 lines in aabbcc form.

the name trijntje fop itself was taken from multatuli (pseudonym of eduard douwes dekker), from his magistral ideas- when will these be translated in english? i'm flabbergasted to be unable to locate a translation. here a link to a commented, wonderful complete online edition of multatuli's ideas in dutch by philosopher maarten maartensz.

in one of the continuing stories (between ideas) master pennewip reads and comments on poems of his children. one of them is trijntje fop, with a short and very simple verse:

Tryntje Fop, op haar muts

Ik heet Tryntje Fop
En heb een muts op myn kop.

(Tryntje Fop, on her cap

I'm called Tryntje Fop
And have a cap on my head.)

pennewip's commentary is very memorable. multatuli was a great modernizer of language, i have tried to retain that spirit also.

in the next post i will give an example of my `trijntje fop goes art' in english. not the best and not all that accessible to a lay person, but it gives an inkling of what i've been working on in this past month of silence.

actually i'm revising the lot of around 160 poems, and this for me is a gargantuan task. although not as bad as writing them in the first place, which took two years.