The Hum Comes From The Stumuch at Gladstone Gallery

Artists: Jack Smith, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Marinus Boezem, Marthe Ramm Fortun, Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide), Trevor Yeung

Exhibition title: The Hum Comes From The Stumuch

Curated by: Kasper Bosmans

Venue: Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Date: June 22 – July 13, 2018

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery

Let’s try and make a story

Mean velocity of wind on a height of 10 m above flat terrain m/sec: 0-3

Mean velocity of wind on a height of 10 m above flat terrain km/h: 1-11

Designation: Light air

Indication: Direction of wind easily identifiable from puffs of smoke, wind becomes perceptible in the face; leaves begin to rustle and weather-vanes may start to move.

This description of so-called “Light air” derives from the Beaufort Scale, which was appropriated by Marinus Boezem (1934) in 1968. After the wind has been symbolized by numbers, a designation follows. It’s only after this denomination that the type of wind is visualized. The awareness of the fact everything in the world has its own ‘logo’ has been of great importance for Boezem’s thinking. Creating logos in an attempt to grasp phenomena we think we understand helps us to navigate the world. The outcome may sound or look childish or naive, but isn’t it this kind of play we need to make our own stories?

The artists in this exhibition have been brought together by Kasper Bosmans who recognized a shared conceptual and visual sensitivity in their work that relates to events that matter in our everyday life. The title of the show derives from an untitled and undated work by Jack Smith (1932-1989), which reads: “My voice is low the hum comes from the stumuch. The effortless tones seem to come out sounding best. Don’t be afraid to be nasal – the nostrils to be relaxed & able to breathe have to be a bit nasal.”

Jean Katambayi Mukendi (1974) maps his surroundings in works that are reminiscent of technical drawings, world maps, and other topologies, playfully pointing to defects in society and the mysteries of being. Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide) (1977) negotiates biased views on histories and societies by offering propositions that reimagine and re-appropriate methods, historical and political happenings and sites, thus resulting in poetic and intimate gestures. On the other hand, Jack Smith’s scribbles evoke absurd, perverse, attractive, and sensual dream worlds that are completely separate from any existing structure. They are worlds we could only long for although they might be repulsive at the same time. On the other hand, Jack Smith’s scribbles evoke absurd, perverse, attractive, and sensual dream worlds that are completely separate from any existing structure. They are worlds we could only long for although they might be repulsive at the same time. The work of Trevor Yeung (1988) evokes a feeling of longing as well, however much more intimate and less expressive. By scanning environments and people, often from a distance, Yeung is trying to uncover all kinds of relationships between them, especially the influence of nature on one’s domestic environment. Marthe Ramm Fortun (1978) is also exploring environments, often performing site specific texts using body, language and elusive sculptural boundaries to inscribe closed off institutional spaces and urban landscapes with persistent and poetic feminisms.

Whereas one searches for meanings within existing structures, the other tries to create a new individual one, while yet another is trying to question the existing structures, to mess up or even to ridicule and transgress them. They are all making stories.

In collaboration with Bosmans, this text was written by Art Historian Julia Mullié.

The Hum Comes From The Stumuch, 2018, exhibition view, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels

Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide), Claim to Universality Colour Theory Exercise 1-20, 2011-2012, works on paper, ink and watercolour, 10 1/4 x 14 1/5 inches (26 x 36 cm)

The Hum Comes From The Stumuch, 2018, exhibition view, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels

Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Marsphairslines, 2016, Marker pen, glue, mdf, 37 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 26 3/4 inches (95 x 85 x 68 cm)

Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Yllux, 2012, cardboard, electical wires, batteries, 40 1/4 x 46 7/8 x 36 5/8 inches (102 x 119 x 93 cm)

Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Sphère, 2016, mixed media, 37 1/2, x 37 1/2 x 55 1/8 inches (95 x 95 x 140 cm)

Jack Smith, Untitled (thoughts/sayings), n.d., Pencil on paper, 3 x 5 inches (7.6 x 12.7 cm), 4 x 6 x 5/8 inches (10.2 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm) framed; Untitled (thoughts/sayings), n.d., Pencil on paper, 5 x 3 inches (12.7 x 7.6 cm), 6 x 4 inches (15.2 x 10.2 cm) framed; Untitled (thoughts/sayings), n.d., Ink on paper, 4 3/8 x 2 3/4 inches (11.1 x 7 cm), 6 x 4 inches (15.2 x 10.2 cm) framed

The Hum Comes From The Stumuch, 2018, exhibition view, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels

Trevor Yeung, The artist’s family dining below his painting, 2014, Digital print, 10 x 7 7/8 inches (25.3 x 20 cm)

Marinus Boezem, Caran d’Ache, 1968-78, wood, metal, colour pencils, feathers, 8 2/3 x 13 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches (22 x 35 x 31 cm)

Marinus Boezem, Della Scultura & la Luce, 1985, plastic, paper, ink, fabric, 10 x 10 x 10 2/3 inches (25.5 x 25.5 x 27 cm)

Marinus Boezem, Untitled, 1996, gouache, ink, computer drawing, 19 2/3 x 29 1/2 inches (50 x 75 cm)

Marinus Boezem, Untitled, 1996, gouache, ink, pencil, 22 x 29 1/2 inches (56 x 75 cm)

Marinus Boezem, Untitled, 1996, gouache, ink, pencil, 19 2/3 x 291/2 inches (50 x 75 cm)

Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Simultium, 2009, cardboard, electical wires, batteries, 70 1/2 x 19 3/4 x 36 5/8 inches (179 x 50 x 93 cm)

Marthe Ramm Fortun, Soul and Mouth Rides, 2016, Two sided mono prints with scans of stone sculptures on carton with acrylic spray, Variable dimensions

Marinus Boezem, Reed bed, 1968, cattails, sand, fan, ca. 78 3/4 x 65 inches (200 x 165 cm)