een vroege Joep : Dommelsch

(btw)

en hoe weten we nou of het werk niet allemaal door zwarte ruyter zelf gefabriceerd is?

vraag de mensen maar die je kent die mee doen vliegtuig! die ken je vast wel.

dat houdt het spannend voor me ;)

out of desperation a month ago I was contacted by the “organizers”, begging me to send them some names of people who might want to join the Dead Darling show- I sent around an email,

later I find out that the Dead Darling show was being curated. I coud not believe this, so, having the chance to meet one of the “organizers”, and telling it how i feel, about how the show is about Dead Darlings, and how can you curate this concept-?…. The first response i got was, well….there are too many applications wedon’t have enough time…and then, after fighting through my tears and trying to speak some sense, I was told – well…. do it your self differently…
Well, actually this is not about the Dead Darlings show- in fact I never really gave a shit about it, I never sent them anything- how do i distinguish what is dead or alive- if its alive its been sold, and since that never happens, i would be sending my whole broken body of work.

But the point is this. Most of the artist I know, including myself, have a very hard time is making ends meet- we are mostly struggling to make a living and on top of that, we are trying to make the time to make work. Idon’t believe that there is any place in our artistic landscape for a show about misery which is being curated. If we don’t stop these kind of shows, and defend the last bit of honor we have (we do control at least the fate of our work-in the bin) then there is no reason to make art any more-… The show is not so important, but the Truth is, we have the power to kill our art, and for sure nobody has the right to tell us if something is dead enough for their show.

Interesting to hear about the curation. More interesting even, is to see on the list of names that there were at least 3 4th year-students photography of the HKU participating. So it is not only about dead darlings, but also about premature darlings.

There where more then 100 submissions. A selection had to be made or else the whole auction would have taken place for hours untill the morning. There is no sense in that!

Everyone who submitted a work was replied that we would let them asap if they would be selected and be part of the auction.

Because we where so busy it was hard to inspect everyone if he or she is still on an academy. We are no private dicks here!

The first criteria was the quality of the works.

Maybe people should read the open call as well when they want to submit something where they want to participate.

Grow up!

It was a great event!