Bart Drost

1985. In the little church of Persingen, near the city of Nijmegen, on a huge canvas life-size  naked boys tumble down in sometimes naughty poses. Drost painted them as part of his installation 'boom blauw bas' (tree blue bass). These boy figures have returned to Drost's work in recent years. On cloths on a coat rack ('verzamelde gedichten', 2010), on cushions in the church ('jongens', 2015) and now - after more than 33 years - on glass plates in the garden of Alarm, an artists initiative from Ans Verdijk..

From the early spring to autumn, Drost has has installed a composition of 20 sandblasted glass plates in the Alarm garden. They seem to be floating just above the grass. They will lay there in wind and weather. No matter how much the grass will proliferate. Grass grows glass.

How will it be, if you don't interfere in things take take place. And can we actually do that? Can something grow if it is suppressed? Will it result in a struggle of the fittest or will art and nature become a serene unity?

During five months, 20 sandblasted glass plates lay in the ALARM garden. Every 13th of the month a series of photos was taken. Here in random order of each month two photos.

The finissage of the project grass grows glass was given the title with the boys take a bath. After all, when everything has to go home it has to be clean again. In a tub, the glass plates underwent a hefty wash one by one. It became what in the art world is also called as 'a performance'.

The lines of the sandblasted drawings are sawn from spruce. That means that each glassplate drawing now also has a spatial version. A version that consists of separate parts. These separate parts can be joined exactly as the sandblasting drawing, but new compositions can also be laid.

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