Stroom bibliotheeksessies: Kim David Bots

When: Tuesday 12 October, 2021
Location: library Stroom Den Haag, Hogewal 1-9

On Tuesday afternoon 12 October a small gathering of artists took place in our library for an inspiration session. It was the first library session after a long while, and this time Kim David Bots was our special guest, an artist born in Amsterdam in 1988 and currently living and working in The Hague as part of artist initiative Billytown.

Kim brought several bags stuffed with books from his collections. When the books were out on the table the conversation started with him talking about the different characteristics of collecting in general, and this collection of carefully selected books in particular. For Kim history never stops. When after the first, second and third generation the memory of such an impactful event like World War II fades away, the ghost of that time will still haunt us. He brought us a great book he got from his father showing that the revolutionary spirit of the Hippies in the 60s started to be commercialized into a life style option in the 70s, changing the idea of freedom into the opposite of the original: the freedom of self centred entrepreneurs.

Humour is important for Kim, confusion and estrangement forming a fertile ground for an artist. We talked about hoarding and getting rid of the stuff that burdens you, about cycling as a way of collecting landscapes, playing games without knowing the rules, inventing new sets of rules every time you play it with somebody else, about uncanny collections of mothers and grandmothers, algorithms that randomly find the right book for you - a book you never could have imagined to exist, and serious black paintings with a comic undertone.

Kim's bag full of books

A selection

Sterrengids 1943
Samenstelling J.J.Raimond jr.  
Uitgegeven in opdracht van de Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor weer- en sterrenkunde.
Groningen, J.B. Wolters, 1943.
Paperback, 16 x 25 cm, 64 pp. Ills.: blauw-witte afbeeldingen.

The Serial: A Year In The Life Of Marin County
Author: Cyra Mcfadden
The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County (often referred to as The Serial) is a satirical novel about Marin County. Beginning in 1976, the book's chapters had been serialized in the Marin County alternative weekly newspaper Pacific Sun, as well as the San Francisco Chronicle. It was first published in book form in 1977.

The book deals with life in mid-1970s Marin County, a suburban and affluent county just north of San Francisco. It is a comic send up of the 1960s Californian lifestyle - personal growth, human life styling and living together relationships. Kate and Harvey Holroyd try to stay hip and loose through a welter of lentil loaves, natural fibres, enzymes and Zen jogging.

Ad Reinhardt: How to Look: Art Comics
by Robert Storr (Author), Anna Gray (Editor), Kristine Bell (Editor), Ad Reinhardt (Artist)
Publisher: Hatje Cantz / David Zwirner, 2014
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Ad Reinhardt at David Zwirner, New York, this catalogue presents a comprehensive exploration of the artist's cartoon works, which he created for various publications throughout his lifetime, most notably the progressive tabloid daily newspaper P.M., in which his How to Look series first appeared in 1946. Reinhardt's comics shed light on the artist's humorous insight into art history, politics and culture, as well as his unparalleled critical sensibility as a painter and thinker. The publication includes new scholarship on this facet of Reinhardt's practice by curator Robert Storr.

"Weibliche" und "männliche" Körpersprache als Folge patriarchalischer Machtverhältnisse
von Marianne Wex
Taschenbuch, Verlag Marianne Wex, 1979
Unter Körpersprache verstehe ich alle körperlichen Bewegungen, die wir in unserem alltäglichen Leben machen. Von der Art, wie wir gehen, stehen, sitzen, liegen bis hin zu unserem Gesichtsausdruck.
Die meisten Bewegungen sind unbewußt. Dennoch - oder gerade deshalb - sind sie ein ganz wesentlicher Teil der Verständigung der Menschen untereinander. Sie geben Signale, die oft schwerer wirken als Worte. Ob ein Mensch schüchtern ist oder selbstbewußt, deprimiert oder fröhlich, erfolgreich oder erfolglos, bittend oder fordernd - all das sieht man auf den ersten Blick daran, wie er seinen Körper hält und bewegt.

Lutz Bacher: Open The Kimono
Edited by Lucas Quigley.
Walther König, Köln
Pub Date: 2/19/2019
This artist's book by New York-based artist Lutz Bacher (born 1962) is a chronological record of remarks collected by Bacher from a variety of sources, including cable television advertisements, movies, news broadcasts, radio, novels, airplanes, subways, sidewalks and elevators between 2013 and 2018.

Das bunte Pilz-Brevier
Merkur-Verlag, Düsseldorf
Ein Ratgeber für Pilzsucher und Leute die ihre Speisekarte billig bereichern wollen.

David Weiss: Die Wandlungen
Edition Patrick Frey, 2 . edition 2018, 1. edition 2014
Hardcover, 596 pages, 476 B/W images
Following up on Nine Books 1973 - 1979, this is another important body of work by the late, Swiss artist David Weiss (1946 - 2012).
Die Wandlungen ("The Metamorphoses") for the first time reproduces all 82 series of graphic metamorphoses dating from 1975 to 1979 in Marrakesh, Carona (Switzerland), and Zurich.
"The first series of Wandlungen dates from 1975 when, deeply upset because his girlfriend Carmen has started seeing Guy Barrier, a Zurich ‘revolutionary,' David goes abroad. His travels take him via Yorkshire in England to Morocco, where he spends quite some time in Marrakesh. Without knowing in advance what he wants to draw, he begins each time at the upper left-hand corner of the sheet of paper, for example with a scribble, a dart, or a cube. The cube turns into a matchbox with a picture of a lion on it and a small deer inside it, which turns into a bone. The bone turns into a  little man who pushes with all his might against the sides of the matchbox until the box collapses. The little man gets scared and, flat on his stomach, looks down over the edge of the cardboard base. The series of images ends with an ear of corn in which every grain has a face with a long nose. Pictures of those faces continue over several pages — each page showing between 6 and 8 single drawings — until a new series begins."

Please Let Me Help
Artists' Book by Zack Sternwalker
Paperback, 2004
Zack Sternwalker is unemployed, overweight, recently divorced, and lives with his mother. Whilst a lesser man would wither away in emo-laden angst, Zack has found inspiration during this difficult stretch of life. A renaissance man, Zack conjures up brilliant ideas (soap on a rope, a Sammie Davis Jr. biopic starring Tom Cruise, vases of flowers in Port-a-Potties nationwide), offers services (babysitter for Sophia Coppola, compiler and burner for a Beatles Best-of), and attempts to woo unsuspecting ladies with his lifelike sketches of firearms. Please Let Me Help is a collection of letters Zack has written to companies, actors, directors, his local police department, Hulk Hogan, and scores of other easy targets. Some write back; most don't. Please Let Me Help includes page after page of vampiric doodles. Can you resist it?

Golden Boy as Anthony Cool
Herbert Kohl; James Hinton, photographer
New York: The Dial Press, 1972.
An early study of modern urban graffiti. Focusing on walls, bathrooms, and political vandalism, the book also includes early consideration of gang graffiti. There are also mentions of the Young Lords and the Black Panthers, and the ties between those organizations and the kids who helped create tagging.
A thoughtful work, beautifully laid out. Scarce, and an important document of the study of graffiti.