Curatorial
A Neon sign in a handwritten style proclaiming the words 'Good old Neon'. The handwriting is that of the writer David Foster Wallace, which de Wit found in the same titled manuscript at the Harry Ransom Center. In an accompanying speech De Wit explains how David Foster Wallace entered his live. An audio recording of a reading of the story of Wallace is part of the installation, also listenable via: dddw.org/neon.mp3
The artist will confess his personal sins. Seven times on a Sunday between Sunset and dark 7 people can witness these confessions live via the internet. Each time taking one of the 7 deadly sins as vantage point for his confession. The public is asked to keep the artist’s confessions secret.
Sign up here here.
Around 2003 I found an old electronic typewriter while walking around the neighbourhood in Groningen. In contrast to non electronic typerwriters, the lint resembles black sellotape where the ink is typed out of, and gathered in a spool in the ink-cassete. When discovering this, I realized all the letters of the person to whom this typewriter belonged to. The first letter I revealed (the last that person wrote) was of a deep and grave nature I didn't continue this for almost 10 years. After the casette lingered around my studio, I was asked to make a work about art in public space. The letter popped up in my mind again, and I continued copying and eventually showing all the letters.
One day I was talking with my mother about things we have in common. I said we both shared having green eyes. On which she replied: "Generally speaking I really don't like green". Being a bit amazed hearing this for the first time, I asked her: "But what about green in nature, such as in landscapes?". She replied: "I don't care much for green in nature or landscapes either". Remembering my childhood growing up in the tropics being lush with opulent greens, I was totally flabbergasted by her statement. The next day my stepfather showed me his slide collection, it was indeed as green as I recalled. That moment I decided to remove all the green from the landscape-photos of my childhood, hoping my mother would like it as much as I did.
photo serie of 110 altered landscape-photos (slides) of my childhood
A friend of mine Roy Kooymans, showed work in my house (which was a projectspace at that time called The Medium Gallery). After a day installing, we took a break since it was a sunny day. We walked in the neighbourhood to see some houses that where being demolished. One of these houses belonged to a friend of mine (the singer of the band Sexton Creeps), since it was unoccupied, nobody was around and all doors had been broken trough, we wandered around this old friends house and found a smashed doorlock. We took it home with the idea to make a collaborative work of it. I took a picture of Roy holding the lock. "It only needed a title". Some mails back and forth we never thought of one. On the 21th of Aprill 2011 Roy, a promising young artist died in a bicycle incident. Our little collaborative work will remain untitled forever. One print was made, given to Roy's parents.
A generic word template constructed from multiple texts and tips found on the web on how to contact or reconciliate with your former lover. The reader/writer has the option to make choices in the text either leaning towards reconnection (friendship) or reconciliation (getting back together). Having both these choices in one single generic word template and insinuating someone could use it for any of their past relationships, it relativates the unique bond couples have had. The letter was published in a publication against love-sickness on valentines day. Feel free to use or alter the text yourself, the original template can be downloaded here, or opened in Google-docs https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=1-WaYVdpMkKdI8P6tzLJSypD339TQuwgiHJpXyB1KCNk&mode=public
A plastic translucent plastic block filled with air, half the size of the exhibition space and in the middle of the space blocking a quarter of the space from being entered, forcing spectators to view the space in a different way.
When entering the gallery you see a projection of a window. When opening the gallery door, you see that the depicted window also slowly opens. There´s an intimate feel about it, once you realize that it is a window in the artist's studio. I find the idea of synchronized events fascinating, being aware of the fact that when you do something simple such as opening a door, picking up a teacup, there are thousands, maybe even millions of people doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.With a simple mind switch you suddenly empathize with an imaginary yet also very real group of people.
A pearl worth 1000 euro's was hidden in the exhibition space. The public was notified that whoever found the pearl, may keep it. These are possible explanations which were distributed as part of the exhibition (text in Dutch)
ink applied into skin of the artist
subtitled: Mind your feet, feed your mind
Installation with marbles on the exhibition space floor. On the wall texts were hung with multiple possible explanations on how the installation could be viewed, from a broad spectrum of different art-historical perspectives.
This photo was made unintentionally when playing with my camera, weeks later after this photo was made I saw for the first time. In that moment it instantly reminded me of Bas-Jan Ader´s work. I added the text ´I miss Bas-Jan Ader´ to make this notion recognizable to others.
I was asked to make the first design for an initiative called Gallery on the streets by Gerben Willers. Public space seems like a battle for attention, yet I didn't want to scream, but wanted to whisper. Therefore I made this connect-the-dot, in which multiple private messages where hidden.
In Hotel Mariakapel (a former Catholic church in Hoorn, which was converted into a Protestant church, and later on turned into an exhibition space) De Wit realised a mural consisting of a sign in Arabic, which can be translated into the word 'Image', referring to the historical context of the space. The meaning of multiple religious values acclaimed to words and images are summarised in this work in a paradoxical manner.
intervention / performance During his studentship at the art-academy Daniël Dennis de Wit promoted himself briefly to the position of Teacher. Through a falsified letter of the schooldirector he contacted fellow students and later gave lessons to some of them, without them knowing about his 'transformation'. In this work De Wit explored the roles people take on on a daily basis, and the way people accept certain statuses and roles groundlessly.
Video - duration 1m01s
Daniël Dennis de Wit in an almost mysophobic act has erased parts of the content of Robert Rauschenberg his semi-readymade work in photoshop. Which in itself is a work Rauschenberg where he erased a drawing of Willem de Kooning (1953). Not as much as a study into the notion of 'the original' but much more as an experiment into nested ideas as well as an investigation into what exactly defines emptyness.
Seeing that most museums are closed on mondays (because they are open all weekend), I thought to myself why artists shouldn't take a break from art from time to time? So I configured my internet-router to block all art websites on mondays.
official title: "Work where Daniël Dennis de Wit can close his studentship with, which could have been an Artwork by Wouter Sibum"
This work is made in collaboration with Wouter Sibum. De Wit and Sibum both did separate installation pieces. The works are related to prominent recurring forms within each others spectrum of artworks. De Wit's exchanged the copyrights of his text paintings with the copyrights of Sibum's gallery-benches. By exchanging the copyrights on these forms at their graduation exam, they tried to nullify the notion of authenticity in their works, and openly question intellectual property. Together with the signed contracts, De Wit's contribution took the form of two gallery benches (normally residing in front of video-installations) from the art institute 'Witte de With', an exhibition space in Rotterdam, rephrasing questions Sibum asked earlier as his own: 'Is every object in a White Cube an art-object'?
web interventions These works consists of image-files of non-existing paintings that were uploaded to a webshop which sells artworks through the internet. The presented “paintings” Daniël Dennis de Wit provided reffers and disturbs it's direct context.
Master of mumbling, nevertheless loves to chat.
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