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29 mei tot 18 juli Architecture and the history of architecture are for Anne Jaap de Rapper (1977) the most important inspiration sources. Also the way the user handles architecture plays a large role in his work. For some years he has moulded small heads, in which the human face has been replaced by a window. He calls this series Monuments for a lost city. The sculptures are the consequence of a literal interpretation of the façade as a face, or even of the building as a person and of the inescapable inclination to assign all kinds of human known characteristics to buildings. The small heads look like caricatures or even cartoon figures. Although they look extraordinarily emotional, the nature of their emotion is strange to us and reminds us mostly of the way in which we are sometimes stared at by buildings in the street. Especially for this exhibition De Rapper has produced a large number of new Monuments for a lost city. De Rapper has also developed new land-marks (Bakens) for this exhibition with a dimension of 1 x 1 meter. They are images of towers which mainly come from details from Renaissance paintings. The reproduction of the land-marks comes about on the basis of an enlargement of a colour print, in which the offset screen plays a construction role in the picture. The towers always take a certain volume within the area, as a result of which the visibility on the towers becomes more or less diffuse. The frequently used religious titles have been borrowed from the paintings from which the towers are taken and which assign them the role of icons. A complete different type of work in the oeuvre of De Rapper is the Aplomb, which he defines as a ?monument on the occasion of the temporary existence?. The Aplomb originates from the striving towards a form in which lies the transitory of decided construction work, ideology and ambition. This is a returning theme in the Rappers work. The Aplomb has been composed from lead plates, which have been beaten with a stamp in a (sometimes Gothic) profile. The blades with crap and wreck have been assembled to a form which reminds one of a relic shrine. The leaden plates have been spayed with metallic car lake. The Aplombs are put together in a way that it is possible to extend or rebuild the construction of the Aplomb in a different form. The construction is vulnerable, because the leaden blades are thin and hardly have any carrying-power. Although it seems a sound massive construction work, the Aplomb is temporarily and therefore actually without any meaning. Another new aspect in De Rapper?s oeuvre is the garages which he has made. They are garages such as those known from the child toy shop or the one that you used to play with during your childhood. The toy as a whole has however disappeared and the garage gets an adult appearance, among other things by the material from which it has been made. For its garage toy modules De Rapper has used plaster and model construction grass, which is also frequently used by model train builders. De Rapper brings the toy garage back to its pure form. As a result the viewer is not interrupted by all kinds of fierce colours, but becomes aware of the architecture of the garage and can also concentrate on its architecture. It?s unclear if it is a building that has been executed a long time ago or that it comes from Madmax-like future, corroded by rain and fierce winds. |
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