Art Rotterdam 2015

5 - 8 February 2015

Press Release

 

Dick Verdult
BULLSHIT DEFINES ARCHITECTURE
Art Rotterdam - Booth 37

 

“We are tempted to believe that the shapes we recognize and are comfortable with are the result of a natural fine-tuning and perfecting through time.” – Dick Verdult

 

Annet Gelink Gallery is pleased to return to Art Rotterdam with a solo presentation by Dick Verdult. Verdult creates art in a range of media, often creating hybrids of for instance film, video, drawings, collage, sculpture, installations, music, or internet-based media. Text and the interplay between text and image have a central role in Verdult’s work, with titles and presented text frequently posited as poetic counterpoints to his visuals.
The works on view at Art Rotterdam were created by Verdult as part of his recent residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre. In an intense period surrounded by ceramic ovens, Dick Verdult gathered random bullshit (cardboard, wood, shreds of thick blankets) and crudely joined them with gaffer tape. Over these constructions, he then laid and wove slabs and “sausages” of clay.
Before these forms had completely dried, he carefully and slowly cut and took the interiors away, leaving visible the result of a small sum of uncontrolled events and disrespected physical laws.
This is the simple procedural explanation of “Bullshit defines architecture”, a series of intriguing glazed constructions. The randomness of the created forms, that in their shape reference architectural structures, is contrasted with the beautiful vibrant colours with which they have been glazed. By instigating and intervening in chaos, Verdult heightens the base materials to elegant works of art.
Annet Gelink Gallery proudly presents this solidified harvest of his recent doings, this time in mud. For the opening of Art Rotterdam Dick Verdult will activate the installation with a special performance. With a recording of Verdult reciting a manifesto-like text (written by Verdult himself) as a backdrop, the separate works will be linked through an absurd action mimicking the militaristic tone of his text. The performance will take place every hour, on the hour during the opening, February 4, and will last 2 minutes.
Dick Verdult’s (Eindhoven 1954) work encompasses film, performance, graphics, drawing, radioshows, text and music. Verdult has produced many independent films, worked as a filmmaker and editor for VPRO television, in addition to founding several art groups, including the IBW (Instituut voor Betaalbare Waanzin / Institute for Affordable Lunacy) and Festicumex, (a festival for a non-existent music genre). Recently, he had an extensive solo-exhibition at Museo El Chopo in Mexico (2014) and a solo at the Van Abbemuseum (2011-2012), as well as shows at 1646 in The Hague (2014), Arti (2014) Museo Castagnino in Argentina (2013) and Annet Gelink Gallery (2013). He represented the Netherlands in Gwangju Biennale 2012. Verdult’s work will be shown in an upcoming show, Gimme Shelter, at Kunstfort Asperen from May 30.
As a visual artist and musician in the experimental Cumbia Lunaticas and Experimentales music, he has acquired a cult status, well known by the name of Dick El Demasiado, especially in South America, Russia and Japan. On February 6 Verdult will perform as Dick el Demasiado at De Player in Rotterdam.