Intro
I had the pleasure to witness and document the framing and glazing with Optium Museum Acrylic® of one of my large silkscreen: Ergere dicht nicht, wundere dich nur.
With a warm thank you to Petra Janssen, Guild Certified Framer. She has won twice the Dutch Art-Frame framing award.
The artwork
The silkscreen unframed is 100 x 150 cm (39.4 x 59.1 in) in size. It is titled Ergere dich nicht, wundere dich nur.
This mixed up sentence comes from, Nicht Ärgern nur Wundern. Which is is a German saying. It means: Don’t get annoyed, be amazed.
The face is drawn with the same blue pen as is the sentence and the work Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. With here and there some white gaps. These might show a mixture of confusion, sadness, hope, and surprise. Around the face and text, I have drawn a black frame.
The smile I have stretched and colored red. The red almost touches the right eye, which is colored black.
The bright yellow background could stand for humor, the sun, and happiness. And almost the whole silkscreen is imbued with this yellow color. Like a positive yellow swamp, I want to suck you into this!
Day 1
On 5 July 2021 I went to the framer to discuss the framing and glazing of the artwork. Carefully Petra laid the artwork flat on a clean paper mat on her working desk with some heavy weights on the side. And then thoughtfully showed me several frames and a few mattes. We discussed in detail the glazing.
Day 2
I came back on the 21st of July and Petra showed me around in her working-space. We talked some more about the hanging. Since with the chosen frame and the large size Optium Museum Glazing the artwork would become almost 20 kilo (44.0 lbs). And then she started to work on the framing.
If you want, you can press the big red button endlessly until a photo of yourself appears that you are happy with. And that photo can also be seen, namely lifesize on a (photo) frame (LIF).
Day 3
3. Pics 19-7-21
Because when the next visitor comes and presses that big red button, the image of this person replaces your.—Perhaps a mild reminder that life continues without you.
Day 4
4. Pics 20-7-21
On the other hand, a photograph is a reminder that we exist. And in general, we want to appear in it as well as possible. And that’s the nice thing about the LIF performance. So you can model your image.
Day 5
5. Pics 21-7-21
We had a good click, and thanks to him, I could bring this idea to fruition. Unfortunately, I forgot the names of many more nice people at Huntsman, with whom I had to pleasure to cooperate.
I will never forget a few lovely people from the department chemicals. They gave me their full support in creating from foam a lifesize large golden photo frame.
And then their department ICT made the technology behind it better.
Open Day Chemistry
Two times I was invited for the bi-yearly Open Days of Huntsman Holland. And two times, I successfully installed the Lifesize Interactive Frame. It was a lot of fun to see the LIF performance at work.
I added to the LIF performance that the visitors could get a print of their photos. As a memento of their participation in the LIF performance at the Chemistry Open Days at Huntsman ICI.
2000
The first open day was on 20 October 2000. I sat at a desk next to the LIF. And all day there were visitors, sometimes there was a line of people waiting. All day long, I was printing the photos for them. Unable to chat with everybody.
The LIF worked like a charm. It was a fantastic performance. And presented at an event and location that showed to be a great fit. An Open Day about chemistry. Since we humans all the time have chemical reactions Unfortunately I have not the best pictures to show you. But here you can get an impression:
2002
Two years later, on 2 November 2002, Hundreds of visitors participated, pressing again that big red button, to take a picture of themselves. We made around 480 photos!
Reference
Tijdens iedere Open Dag Chemie zijn opnieuw vele bezoekers er over verbaasd dat bijna alle dagelijkse producten wel iets met de chemische industrie te maken hebben. Kunstenares Kim Engelen toonde met haar kunstwerk “Levensgrote Interactieve Fotolijst” aan dat chemie en kunst uitstekend bij elkaar passen.
Grote rode knop
Kunstenares Kim Engelen heeft er mede voor gezorgd dat dit een geslaagde dag was. Zowel bij de organisatie als bij de bezoekers viel de Levensgrote Interactieve Fotolijst in goede aarde. Veel mensen wilden eigenhandig op de grote rode knop slaan om hun eigen beeld op de grote schitterende fotolijst te toveren. Op een gegeven moment stond er zelfs een rij bezoekers in de wacht om op de foto te kunnen. Op deze wijze werden de stralende bezoekers vastgelegd en als herinnering kregen ze een foto mee naar huis.De performance van Kim Engelen waar de bezoeker deelnemer is, was een magnifieke aandachtstrekker in het geheel te noemen. In 2002 is er opnieuw een Open Dag Chemie en Huntsman zal Kim hier zeker weer voor uitnodigen.
Niko van Gent
Public Relations
The LIF worked like a charm. It was a fantastic performance performed three times. Perhaps because many of us need attention and want to have fun.
The last two times at Huntsman Holland proved to be a great fit. During an Open Day about chemistry. Since we humans, all the time have chemical reactions. I have only thumbnails as an impression:
Festival Tonen
The LIF performance was installed for the first time on 30 September 2000 at Festival Tonen in Monster.
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