The idea for Souffrances de poche occurred to me one day when I was walking down the road, feeling a bit down and out of sorts.
A thought popped in my head: “if I had a little box in my pocket, say the size of a cigarette case and inside that box there would be some etchings with images more unpleasant then this present reality, then I might, looking at them, smile a little and in doing so my perspective regarding the reality of things would be restored.”
To disperse our personal rain-clouds through means of slapstick or schadenfreude is a very effective way to relieve that home-made pressure.
Obviously I am not the only one who, by times, walks around feeling blue but I might be the only one who creates images like these as a short cut to restore existential awkwardness.
Sometimes when we find ourselves, somewhere and somehow, so lost and estranged that we ask ourselves: “what am I doing here, what the hell is this life about” remember then that this should be the moment to look at the Souffrances de poche !
Souffrance de poche, 2010, edition 4
A selection of 7 etchings from a series of 15,
Bound in an album in an edition of 4.
Text, printed and bound by the artist.
Each print signed by artist.
Printed on Somerset soft white 300gms
Each album in this edition has a different selection of prints and cover design.
Song of the chambermaid, 15x11cm
Upward immobile, 2008, 14 x 10 cm
Dress, 2008, 15.5 x 12 cm
La famille, 2008, 15.5 x 12.5 cm
Lap-dog, 2009, 15.5 x 12.5 cm
Venus trap, 2008, 11 x 13 cm
Pinned down, 2009, 9.5 x 15.5 cm
Object of desire, 2008, 11 x 16 cm
M. Ca-ca, 2008, 15.5 x 12 cm
Bed of roses, 2008, 11.5 x 16 cm
After you have gone, 2008, 11 x 15 cm
Tear-away, 2008, 12 x 15 cm
De Huurkamer, 2008, 12 x 15 cm
My other half, 2009, 15.5 x 12 cm
Souffrance de poche, 2008-10, series of 14 etchings