#42 - 21 November 2021

In een moment van nostalgie heb ik in De Slegte mijn kunstgeschiedenisboek uit het secundair gekocht. 'Kunst van Altamira tot heden'

Een absolute klassieker op het gebied van kunstgeschiedenis. Het bevat een heel duidelijk overzicht met op elke pagina begeleidende beelden.

De Slegte

Gisteren was het de laatste dag van de tentoonstelling 'I was here' van Finbar Ward bij Geukens & De Vil in Antwerpen maar in het SMAK kan je nog tot begin maart zijn tentoonstelling 'Barely a Ripple' zien.

Finbar Ward's (°1990, UK) sculptural installations, paintings and works on paper aim to be chameleonic in ambition. Using a combination of organic and raw material, foraged matter and studio detritus, Ward’s practice reflects on and is physically determined by the histories, traditions and narratives surrounding the location it will inhabit. In a time of infinite exposure to imagery and an increasing estrangement from the physical, it is a visceral engagement with the work that he strives to elicit from the viewer.This new body of work made for the exhibition space of the Friends of S.M.A.K, Ghent and Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp is born out of a reaction to the 2020 lockdown. The researchspans from antiquity to the contemporary day in search of individuals who have devoted themselves to their homes and gardens as a place of self expression and solace. The worktakes the use of Larariums in ancient Rome as its source. These wall mounted structures acted as shrines to the domestic deities and guardian spirits thought to have watched over theday to day life of a household. Ward has adopted this gesture to create a series of ode to works dedicated to his pick of ‘home makers’ found throughout history and contemporary culture. Each work has been made with an assemblage of materials chosen to reflect the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the individual and the spaces they have built, tweaked,decorated and mused upon. It is a body of work which hopes to applaud the endeavour to care for and maintain our immediate surroundings, and to consider the ancient and enduring need to say ‘I Was Here’.

​Finbar Ward

​Voorbije zomer las ik mijn eerste 'spionageroman' 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' van John le Carré uit 1963. Een echte koude oorlog thriller. Ideaal voor gure zondagmiddagen in de zetel.

In this classic, John le Carre's third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction. With unsurpassed knowledge culled from his years in British Intelligence, le Carre brings to light the shadowy dealings of international espionage in the tale of a British agent who longs to end his career but undertakes one final, bone-chilling assignment. When the last agent under his command is killed and Alec Leamas is called back to London, he hopes to come in from the cold for good. His spymaster, Control, however, has other plans. Determined to bring down the head of East German Intelligence and topple his organization, Control once more sends Leamas into the fray -- this time to play the part of the dishonored spy and lure the enemy to his ultimate defeat.

'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'