The message is in the eye of the beholder
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to participate in the Papyrus Cvol project by Alex Stalenberg. A friend of him Fred Cook, Quebec, Montreal started this project. The assignment is making an artwork of 1 – till 3 meters on a roll of paper of 50 meters. After finishing my piece, I have to give it back or find a serious artist to make next the next piece of art on the roll. At the end there will be a roll, with a lot of contributions of various artists, round about 50. In between you’ve got to make some pictures of the making proces. What happens next is not known, maybe it will be exposed somewhere somehow in Quebec.
So I started with some strange ideas, but it turns out to become this piece, a drawing or painting. I named it “The message is in the eye of the beholder”, because the first comments were about the crown and if it had to do something with the queen of holland, Koning Willem Alexander and The coming SAIL 2015 in Amsterdam (huge ships, yaughts, and big boats tour entering the harbour of Amsterdam). No,….it had nothing to do with that. The crown was a tribute to Basquiat , the rest a mixture of a project I’am involved in “After Fijne Fijnerikken” and some cartoon billboard stuff I’am working on. Some sketches and experiments in my mind as inspiration. So, that’s why the title became “The message is in the eye of the beholder”, because people see things in this painting, which were not supposed to. But I don’t care. It’s what is in their heads. And tat is OK. And thats great. I have to leave it this way, it is finished. First I made a song (in dutch), inspired by this painting during the proces. But it’s not finished yet… This project reminds me of earlier “passing through projects with art”, the “doorgeef” workshop art project I organised long ago. Several artists sitting in a circle and passing by the painting they work on. Till you get your own painting back. Sometimes a weird and inspiring proces. But another interesting project was of the Cramp magazine. The concept is 30 artists making each 1 artwork for in the limited handmade book. Each artist makes 50 the same pages for the book, all inds of techniques and themes are allowed. The endresult is 50 books with 30 contributions of 30 artists, owned by he artists and some buyers or collectors. Really a lot of work, but very rare, priceless, limited and inspiring.
Robert Pennekamp, Papurus c’vol, thanx to: Alex Stalenberg, living in Amsterdam, Paris and Paul Cook, living in Quebec, Montreal.
