Artwork of the month - video (53 sec)

Woodworking - Self Portrait

Year	2021
Size	22 cm x 27.5 cm x 26.5 cm
Materials	various types of clay, minerals, pigments, glazes, glue
Options	/
Edition	1/1
For Sale	Yes, contact our gallery Fred&Ferry (Antwerp, BE)
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R&F/F&R are keen on self portraits. Often they used their own portrait as a prop in their various residencies and theatre pieces. Think of their ultimate transformation in ‘A journey into Space’ (2012) where Frank transformed in a Robbert and Robbert transformed into a wigged LA surfer, then into Frank dressed as a detective, then into an alien blob and also into a moving garden gnome.

Self portraits are transformation tools for Frank and Robbert. Often they transform into each other, and once in a while they transform in something so general that it can represent anyone at any time.

During their residency in 2019 at Air Alexanderplatz Berlin they started to redefine their use of their own portrait: instead of using photorealistic representation of themselves, the artists started to make abstractions of themselves. They called these abstractions ‘pointbeeks’ and ‘crossheads’. These figures represent the artists and were used in a series of clay tablets. Depicted on the tables R&F F&R documented their lives in poetic and/or surreal scenes with totempoles and hands reaching out of clouds, etc.

‘Self Portrait – Woodworking’ is different. It’s a ceramic sculpture. But it’s no longer a clay tablet. This 3D sculpture is figurative but contains the same pointbeek figures as seen in 2D ceramic works. It’s no fictional representation but an honest image: two figures are making something. They know each other, and they care about each other. It almost seems like one figure wants to support the othe one, asking ‘are you alright?’. This is the essence of the Frank and Robbert artist practice: two friends who care and create together.

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