Click here to download 'TWO FARMING ENSEMBLES' in pdf format / File size: 12,5 MB / BOOKLET: page 1-12 (double-sided) / page 13: cover. © 1994, Rotterdam, Arnold Schalks.

CONCEPT / Arnold Schalks

from a letter to the Dutch Embassy in Paris.

Rotterdam, October 10. 1994.

Dear Mr. Verschuur, I would like to draw your attention to an event that will soon take place in your residence. But first let me introduce myself: my name is Arnold Schalks, my profession visual artist. Rotterdam is the city I live and work in. Language is a significant component of my work, literature plays an important role in it. My work consists of 'translating' and 'transforming'. Both actions aim to create associations. Both activities focus on interconnecting levels, notions, languages, materials, objects and, finally, people. [...]

 On Saturday, 5. November 1994, my exhibition 'deux ensembles fermiers/two farming ensembles' will be opened in gallery Jorge Alyskewycz, rue des Taillandiers 14 in Paris. In the two gallery spaces, I will show two ensembles of which the materials refer to farming.

The first space.

One ensemble consists of an electric fence installation. It shows two seperate electric circuits that run in opposite directions. The upper circuit represents 'practice', the lower 'theory'. The two circuits meet at 'point zero' of the work: an oval concrete water trough. The work is titled: 'la voie intérieure/the inner way'. It represents the mental process.

The second space.

The other ensemble revolves -in both senses of the word- around cheese. In the next space, a Gouda 40+ cheese is suspended from the ceiling. The cheese was cut three times in a spiral way. Each section of the cheese was inked up and printed on paper: the cheese left a black impression, the holes in the cheese left blanks. The three prints resemble a starry nightsky. The prints were enlarged with a factor of 7 and transferred to three pieces of black cheesecloth. Where there were holes in the cheese, holes were consequently cut in the textile. The thus prepared pieces of cloth were attached to the spiral arms of a caroussel-like construction that is suspended from the ceiling as well. The reassembled cheese makes up the centre of this ensemble. The work represents our galaxy, and is titled 'la voie lactée/the milky way'.

On the floor of the same space, seven small cheeses are arranged in the configuration of the star cluster 'Pleiad'. This star cluster is part of the sign of the zodiac 'Taurus'. The stars of the 'Pleiad' are located within our galaxy, relatively close to our solar system. The 'cheeses' do not consist of dairy. They were produced with shredded copies of collections of poems. The poems were created by the seven members of the legendary circle of French Renaissance poets 'the Pleiad'. Pierre the Ronsard is the most prolific and most well known representative of this circle. I pressed the paste-soaked shreds of each collection seperately in a cheese mould.

To me, there is a similarity between the production of cheese and the printing of books: Both techniques were conceived to preserve matter that otherwise would easily be lost. Both books and cheese form relevant mental and tangible foodsources in my life.

Through the ages, the love poems of Pierre de Ronsard have been set to music by many composers. On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition, four persons will execute four of these compositions. The musicians will sing their songs, standing in one of the ensembles: in the heartshaped centre of 'the inner way'. The programme includes compositions of two French contemporaries of de Ronsard: "Nature ornant la dame,..." by Clément Janequin and "J'espère et crains,..." by Pierre Certon. Next are two compositions by Dutch composers: "Sonnet" by Hendrik Andriessen and "Odes I, 17" by Hans Riphagen. Hans Riphagen wrote his composition especially for this occasion. It is a world première. [...]

Sincerely, Arnold Schalks