Bart Drost

In the context of the annual art manifestation PlateauKunst on the plateau of Margraten in South Limburg, Wanda Reiff came to visit the studio in the kitchen of Drost's new home base in Houthem-St.Gerlach and one thing led to another: he will present his installation 'Let's have a seat and talk about it' (Xiamen, 2011) in the open air during the last weekend of August. A fantastic meeting on the green green grass: Bart Drost and the South Limburg art world. This refers back to an earlier presentation in which he introduced himself as a 'visiting artist' in Xiamento the students of the Tang Kah Kee College (2011).

The artist, being part of the installation, was present at his work throughout the two-day event, answering questions from visitors/spectators under the motto "Let's have...."

The installation was supplemented with the works which he those days realized in Xiamen: 'grooms for one day' and 'about Chinese art education'.

People often ask the artist 'What kind of work do you make?' But asking the question is often more easy than giving the answer. How to describe an image in simple words? Nowadays artists answer with a simple 'Take a look on my website'.

In the installation 'Let's have a seat and talk about it' Drost has found a unique way to give the visitor an idea of his art work and his artistic life. Not by referring to his website, not by showing just one painting, one drawing or one sculpture but by showing almost hundred photo's of his private home and studio in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. In his believe daily life and making art are not two seperate worlds, they are woven together and form as such the complete life of the artist. 

The photo's are printed on format 30x50cm and form each the surface of hundred little notebook tables such as students in Xiamen usual use when they are laying in their beds.

In this installation Drost invites the visitor to take a little chair and spend time together to have a chat about the images the tables are showing. Chatting on your notebook all alone in your bedroom is okay and of course very convenient, but never forget the importance of communication face to face. Take time, no hurry.

As a visual artist from Europe Bart Drost has a certain kind of western art-language: art for him is to express his inner life, whatever there is going on. With his art he tries to give images to his feelings and visions about what's happening in and around himself, about the world and him. By showing these images at the public Bart Drost communicates on a level where words fail.

Being these weeks in Xiamen as a guest teacher at the Art Department of the TTK-university he has to realize that making oneselfs personal life common is all but usual. They are different -the Chinese and the Dutch artist- in expressing their feelings. Thats not only in art, but also in the behaviour in everyday life.

It is amazing how extremely good some Chinese students can copy the works of old Dutch masters, how they work virtuous with brush, paint and pencil. But however, it hurts to see how difficult it is for them to make a  new work', out of their own, without an example they could copy. Most of the time it is their art-education that seems to be the reason of being unsure about their own possibilities: as if they not to have learned to speak and to develop an visual language of their own.

The installation he made at CasualLocations in China has undergone a metamorphosis at PlateauKunst: the 7 plaster heads now stand on a base with wheels.

It's 2011. In the installation 'Reflections Part I: About Love' there is a book placed on a pedestal that has the title 'Grooms for one day'. It is a wedding book like many people make in order to memorize their wedding. Bart Drost contacted a Chinese wedding photo company and asked them to make different photo series of the grooms.

He plays one of the grooms and he asked a college artist to play the role of the other groom. Just for one day. The result is beautiful book and it involves more than a non-verbal story, it's about more than the social phenomenon 'two male personsl marrying '.

During the recording and production of the book Drost received all cooperation. He printed the book in a luxury edition of 25 pieces. Transport to Netherlands, however, proved to be not easy: the book turned out to be 'suspect material '.

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