WILFRIED LENTZ - ARTISTS

GROOT HANDELSGEBOUW
STATIONSPLEIN 45
UNIT C 1.140
POSTBUS 132
3000 AC ROTTERDAM

OFFICE@WILFRIEDLENTZ.COM
M: +31 (0)653446524
T: +31 (0)104126459
F: +31 (0)104129313

GALLERY OPENING TIMES:
THURSDAY - SATURDAY
1:00 - 6:00 pm
OR BY APPOINTMENT

OFFICE@WILFRIEDLENTZ.COM

UPCOMING
PROGRAMME
ARTISTS
NEWSLETTER
ABOUT

>ROSSELLA BISCOTTI

>SUSANNE KRIEMANN

>MATTS LEIDERSTAM

>WENDELIEN VAN OLDENBORGH

>PHILIPPE VAN WOLPUTTE

WORKS 

> Limburgerhof (The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements)

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements
Gelaende und Gebaeude der Landwirtschaftlichen Versuchstation Limburgerhof (aerial view), 2008 Indian ink, gouache and white pencil on paper 69 x 102 cm

The installation ‘Limburgerhof (The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements)’ is a series of newly produced pieces, - translations and reworkings of material relating to an agricultural research centre.

Formerly a small German village producing sugar beet, Limburgerhof was developed as housing for workers of the chemical giant BASF, later to become an agricultural research centre in 1914. As a division of BASF’s other chemical exploits, the Limburgerhof plant became of key importance in the development of knowledge in the chemical manipulation of crops, including the use of fertilizers.

Beckett takes Limburgerhof as a series of events and facets, a sort of loose tool kit with which to re-arrange and combine, in order to derive new sense. In an installation of paintings, sculptures, embroidery and various objects, an environment is born sitting somewhere between a public communications centre of the Limburgerhof, and craft exhibition of BASF-employees.

‘Limburgerhof’ is a continuation of the extract-arrangement series, following ‘Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)’ and preceding the ‘fire extract-arrangements’.

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements, installationview

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements, installationview
James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements, installationview

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements
Sack One and Two (working title), 2008 Vitrine, found sack (with stabilizing structure), Sculpture (Multiplex with primer). 100 x 80 x 35 cm (vitrine) 79 x 57 x 26 cm (sculpture) Unique piece (Sack Two as separate edition available)

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements, installationview

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements, installationview
James Beckett, Silver Sack, 2008 silver key-ring with found chain, on nail (miniature of larger model) 11 x 3 cm, edition of 10

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements, installationview

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements, installationview
Plates and Knives (working title), 2008 Vitrine, 2 dishes, 2 knives 50 x 110 x 24 cm Unique

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements
Flowers (working title), 2008 Machine embroidery. tryptich 9 x 45 cm each Ed. 5 + 1 AP

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements
Flowers (working title), detail, 2008 Machine embroidery. tryptich 9 x 45 cm each Ed. 5 + 1 AP

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements
James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements Salad Spoons (BASF/Luran) (working title), 2008 Vitrine, found cutlery embroidered shirt 50 x 100 x 40 cm Unique, (shirt in an edition of 5)

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements

James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements
James Beckett, Limburgerhof The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements Salad Spoons (BASF/Luran) (working title), detail, 2008 Vitrine, found cutlery embroidered shirt 50 x 100 x 40 cm Unique, (shirt in an edition of 5)

> Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)

James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)

James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)
James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements), installationview Lüttgenmeijer Berlin, 2008

The installation ‘Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)’ is a series of pieces, translations and reworkings of material relating to an Italian steelcompany.

‘Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)’ is the first installation in the extract-arrangement series, preceding ‘Limburgerhof’ and the ‘fire extract-arrangements’.
The evolution of Dalmine, an Italian company producing tubular steel, is the subject of an installation consisting of paintings, sculptures, embroidery and various objects presented in cabinets and on shelfs.

James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)

James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)
James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements), installationview Lüttgenmeijer Berlin, 2008

James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)

James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)
James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements), no title(recreational programme for children of factory employees of Dalmine) Machine embroidery, shadow frame, 35,5 x 27 cm Ed. 3 + 1 AP, 2008 (installationview Lüttgenmeijer)

James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)

James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)
James Beckett, Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements), installationview Lüttgenmeijer

> Beckett-Beaumont

James Beckett, Beckett Beaumont

James Beckett, Beckett Beaumont
Installationview at Buro Friedrich Berlin showing the Tartan and print of the original statistics of the digestionexperiments, 2006

Tartan “Beckett-Beaumont”

Registered, the Beckett- Beaumont is an official Tartan. Scottish Tartans originally served roughly as the markers of clans, families and districts. In Beckett's tartan the spacing, colors and thickness of the lines are taken from digestive results of the experiments of William Beaumont “Father of Gastric Physiology” (1785-1853).

Whilst serving as a doctor in the U.S. army, Beaumont was offered a window into the workings of the living, when a certain Alexis St. Martin was shot in the abdomen, forming a hole that led directly into his stomach. Beaumont was able to lower pieces of food through the hole, into the gastric juices to monitor various digestive times

The colours of the lines in the tartan relate to the means of cooking, the thickness of the lines refer to the digestion times and the position in the tartan represents the foodstuff. The tartan reads in the same order as the table shown, a original observation of Beaumont's.

The unfortunate Alexis St. Martin, who was allegedly reluctant to take part in the experiments. Mr. St. Martin would, in his later life, travel between family and laboratory in a lengthy commute from Canada to the United States. He was also said to have quite a drinking problem.

James Beckett, Beckett Beaumont

James Beckett, Beckett Beaumont
Copy of page 17 Experiments and Observations of the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion, William Beaumont, Edinburgh 1838,

James Beckett, Beckett Beaumont installation with ties

James Beckett, Beckett Beaumont installation with ties
Limited edition neck-ties now available in Beckett- Beaumont. Proportions based on vintage digestion experiments. (installation view, T293, Naples)

> Rabbit to Score

James Beckett, Rabbit to Score, installation with lightbox

James Beckett, Rabbit to Score, installation with lightbox
James Beckett, Rabbit to Score, the original registation of the behaviour of a rabbit shown as graphics in a lightbox, 2006

“Rabbit to Score” 2006
Collaboration with Koen Nutters and members of the N - Collective.

Rabbit to Score is an action of translating the behaviour of a rabbit to the time, phrazing and spatialization of music, hence taking an old registration and re-creating an event. Initially the basis was quite rigid, measurements all based on time -code and quite literal interpretation, after which the musicians moved to a more loose and improvised series of recitals.

Shown are three steps in the visual process, first the original in a light box, second the breaking down into a time code (collage framed), and third a gestural generalization of the lines (drawing framed).

James Beckett, Rabbit to Score,

James Beckett, Rabbit to Score,
"Rabbit to Score" was first played in STEIM Amsterdam, as part of Beckett's lecture "Animals In Instruments", 2006

James Beckett, Rabbit to Score, installation with breaking down of the timecode

James Beckett, Rabbit to Score, installation with breaking down of the timecode
James Beckett, Rabbit to Score, framed collage with breaking down of the timecode

> Monkhouse Traffic Profiles

James Beckett, Monkhouse

James Beckett, Monkhouse
James Beckett, Monkhouse Traffic Profiles, drawings marker and pencil on Ivory Carton, framed, each 70 x 100 cm, 2006

“Monkhouse Traffic Profiles”, 2006

Monkhouse and Wilkenson were graphic design/ mapmakers, producing textbooks for universities as well as commercial projects in the late 1960’s and 70’s.
These prints are an exercise, using a method of theirs to display information in relation to averages. Originally used for displaying hours of sunlight the technique is here used to display density in traffic flow. Information is collected via automatic counters at one point on a national road, and an average is calculated every 15 minutes. If a given day is above average it will be present as black and if below will simply be absent.
(installationview at Buro Friedrich Berlin)

> Phones

James Beckett, Phones

James Beckett, Phones
Phones, Installationview from aside, 2005

'Phones', Instrument consisting of 126, 1950's bakelite telephones, on 11 channels of various alternating current controlled by midi, composition of 11 minutes, 2005

James Beckett, Phones

James Beckett, Phones
Phones, Installationview midover, 2005

> Untitled Plottings

TEXTS 

> Astrid Mania on James Beckett in 'vonhundert' magazine
click here to download text as pdf

> Vinken en Van Kampen on James Beckett in Tubelight (Dutch)
download text as pdf(dutch)

CV

James Beckett (b. 1977, Harare, Zimbabwe) graduated from the Technikon-Natal, Durban South Africa, after which he took part in a two-year residency in the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam.

Coming from a background of installation and sound, Beckett has been involved in a form of research in various subjects, building on a surface layer across various media. Specific areas of the industrial revolution have played muse; such as the evolution of Dalmine (an Italian company producing tubular steel) and the cultural implications of vacuum tubes for the Dutch firm Philips. Along with being a member of the Dutch based musicians collective; N-collective, Beckett has his own registered Scottish tartan, the pattern of which is based on vintage digestive experiments: ‘Beckett-Beaumont’ (#7039). Without humor his work would appear as mere cynism, - it is romance with an inherently rotten subject matter which offers some sort of redemption in a modern world.(cit.JB)

Recent exhibitions include ‘Dalmine (and other industry extract-arrangements)’, Lüttgenmeijer, Berlin; Young Artists' Biennal, Fundatia Culturala Meta, Bucharest; ‘For the First and the Second Time’, CAC Vilnius; ‘Living Registration', T293 Naples; 'Living Registration’, Bürofriedrich Berlin; ‘Between Thought and Sound’, The Kitchen New York; "Museum of Noise', Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne.
Beckett won the Prix de Rome for Art and Public Space in 2003. He will publish a monograph with Kehrer Verlag of Heidelberg in early 2009, featuring most works of the past decade.

download complete cv as pdf

LINKS 