Dora Garcia Lopez / Albert Goederond / Q.S. Serafijn "Dora Garcia Lopez, Albert Goederond & Q.S. Serafijn"

07.09–13.10.1991
de Appel, Prinseneiland 7, Amsterdam

Dora Garcia Contes choisis, 1991
© Frits de Haan, Delft

Albert Goederond, Z.t., 1991
© Frits de Haan, Delft

‘In September and October, De Appel showed work of three then little-known artists in three solo exhibitions. They differed in age, background and experience but they were all exponents of the present time: they made a freehanded use of images and of imaging means which enabled them to break free from the established codes of painting, sculpture and photography. By using objects, language, found images, furniture, animals etc., they produced 'arrangements' which were not so much a style as a mentality. Poetical but at the same time analytical, their work achieved in each case a personal and subtle compass of feeling which implied an allergy to clamorous self-conceit. The artists referred, with varying degrees of explicitness, to the problem of whether they could or wished to add new images to those already stored in our museum, our books or our brains. The showcase by Q.S. Serafijn contains a collation of images which all have some reference to the history of art but acquire a new meaning in the present context. The maker of this work describes himself as a 'Super Non-individual Watcher' an observing third party who wishes to do no more than make notes, or comments on what the viewer already knows or can find elsewhere. Serafijn regularly adopts tactics such as repetition, doubling and placing between quotation marks or in a frame. Concepts like authenticity and identity become derailed by the presence of what might be termed unique duplicates and replicas with an authentic touch. The artist find himself forced to 'tell truth and lies in the same breath' Dora Garcia Lopez experiences a similar hesitancy about the production of new objects. She identifies with the blind writer who, being too shy or too self conscious, ascribed his work to someone else rather put his name on it. At the same time she is fascinated by the act of making and has gnawing desire to create a world parallel to the natural and physical one. That world should transmit meaning and also should make clear her doubts about the validity of existing symbol systems. In searching for a no men's land of form, free of any obvious artistic charge, Garcia Lopez chanced upon the patterns of basketwork. She started weaving baskets upon the pattern for the interlacing events of a story. The baskets are not displayed as isolated artifacts but in confrontation with quoted images from other sources. Albert Goederond has also known times when he doubted the usefulness of creating an autonomous world of images. But that period is now behind him. The problem of originality plays no role for him because he considers that someone who imitates or echoes another inevitably the act in another context or time. The inherent meanings are thus always chanced. That his own sculpture can take the form of bronze acorns or polished coconuts can be put down to 'acrobatic leaps of the mind' which take place 'under continual strict visual checking'. He sees himself as an intermediary, as one for whom 'the capital accumulated in the mind' must be released in order to permit the formation of new combinations or groupings. His main goal is to amaze himself with every new incongruity that emerges- something he can only achieve by 'viewing the whole business with a sense of bankruptcy and blankness every time he starts work.’ (Invitation text by Saskia Bos) Catalogues: Dora Garcia. Contes choisis, 1992. Text: Wilma van Asseldonk. In Dutch & English. Bio- & bibliography included. 16 Pages: 2 f.c., 2 b.w., 18 x 24 cm. Softcover. Design: Irma Boom. ISBN 90 73501 09 1. SOLD OUT Albert Goederond. La salle, 1992. Text: Fred Wagemans. Dutch & English.16 Pages: 2 f.c., 2 b.w., 18 x 24 cm. Softcover. Design: Irma Boom. SOLD OUT Q. S. Serafijn, 1992. Text: Jouke Kleerebezem. Dutch & English. Biography. 16 Pages: 1 f.c., 2 b.w., 18 x 24 cm. Softcover. SOLD OUT