Some CD-artwork

Last week I received the latest issue of "Ballustrada", a dutch litterary zine with this time (because they exist 25 years) 25 poems, 25 (very) short stories and 25 visual contributions. One of the visual contributions was done by me.

Apocalyptic streams

Here's some artwork that I did for a German CD-release.

Het Moet Onverstaanbaar #3

The series of zines with the title “Het Moet Onverstaanbaar” ended with issue 3. This one had contributions by Claudio Parentela, Rael Mail, Kapreles, Anne Nomrowski, Monobrain, Gianni Simone, Sylvain Gérand, Syogo Yoshikawa, Dietmar Vollmer, AnneMiek Bibbe & Grady Roper.

Not content with spreading his violent, grotesque art through the net, Marcel Herms invites his friends to contribute and collaborate as well. The result is this full-color, offset printed beauty that will surely disturb all but the strongest stomachs. (Kairan #9)

Collaboration with Grady Roper

Third issue of Marcel Herms' artzine from Holland and stencilled by the printing collective Knust with the works of Marcel Herms and collaborations with a.o. Claudio Parentela (known from numerous anthologies and zines), Rael Mail (Dutch mail artist), Kapreles (guess who ?), Anne Nomrowski, Monobrain (Dutch madman and noisist), Gianni Simone, Sylvain Gérand (from the French zine L'Horreur Est Humaine), Syogo Yoshikawa (from hePAnILLILL .... etc. ....), Dietmar Vollmer, Annemiek Bibbe and Grady Roper (from the U.S. anticomics newspaper Proper Gander). Some works are reproduced in full colour, my collaboration is printed in bl/w with additional red subcolour -- very beautiful effect!!, pages in blue, red, green, .... ink. This artzine is probably only for the art brut fanatic. I guess people interested in "alternative" comics (nerds drooling on about Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware and other so-called innovative comicartists who are actually producing mainstream shit. Semi-intellectuals keep bitching that their work are graphic novels, with other words: good stuff for people who like to read books but prefer pictures with it because they are lazy fucks) will find this zine not very appealing but I might be wrong. Most comiclosers prefer a "story" with it, they want the artist "something to tell", like art on it's own is not interesting enough. I prefer one good drawing above any so-called graphic novel. If I want to read I read a book. I used to read graphic novels, some are quite okay, but they don't give me the same rush as art brut does. A graphic novel drawn in an art brut style is something that probably isn't done before though I would like to read it. Anyway, if you like chaotic insane primitive artstyles this will be your cup of tea. It sure is mine. Some works of Marcel Herms, especially the "Schizophrenic" comic, reminds me of the work of the Swiss artist M.S. Bastian. I don't like his art too abstract but he produced some fine pieces in the past and hopefully will continue to do so in the future. I don't know how many copies are made but to get yours you better act quickly. (Kapreles)

Ah, here's another publication on which a great deal of time and care no doubt went into its production. The work presented here is of the art brut variety and includes comix, collage, abstraction, lots of color and what appears to be lino- or woodcut. Between color covers by Marcel Herms and Grady Roper you'll find fascinating work from an assortment of international artists such as Claudio Parentela, Kapreles (in collaboration with editor Herms), Monobrain, Gianni Simone and others. One of my favorite pieces (in addition to the previously mentioned contributions) is Herms' two-page comix-style adaptation of Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" – the art seems perfectly fitted. This stuff's crazy and very much in the same vein as projects by Marc van Elburg (Headhunter) previously reviewed here. It's crazy, but beautiful, and the production is amazing. Recommended. (Poopsheet)

Collaboration with AnneMiek Bibbe

This artzine done by Marcel Herms approved as a very qualitative publication inside scratchy colorfull illustrations with deep mind-quite provocative type, relative to life essences and truths. That is so attractive as his creating noise. Check this now! (Infected By Dementia #3)

Netherlander Marcel Herms and a few collaborators render high-anxiety visuals in bright colors, which makes them look like currency from some Dada dystopia. Loosely interprets Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" and the Bobby Fuller Four's "I Fought the Law”. (Zine World #20)

Now that’s what I call an artzine! Nice, funny, beautiful, frightening, red green blue black and white drawings from all kinds of graphic artists printed on heavyweight paper. Good! (EmptyLetter)

Het Moet Onverstaanbaar #2

And after Het Moet Onverstaanbaar #1 came the second issue. Also printed by Knust and this time with contributions by Monobrain, Kapreles, Marcel Ruijters, Rael Mail, Marilyn Dammann, Claudio Parentela & David Aronson.

You may recall the review of HMO#1 back in SP#12 – well here’s more über strangeness from those loveable Euro comix mental patients, and such pretty colours! Mother, do you like the pretty colours? Mother dear? See my drawing mother, I drew it just for you!” (Sick Puppy#13)

backcover

The second installment of the multi-colored art project featuring international contributors, Het Moet . . . #2 has the same feeling of drug-induced spontaneity as the first. Violent smears of ink and paint come together in often uncomfortable scenarios as Marcel Herms collaborates with Claudio Parentela, MonoBrain, Marcel Ruijters, and others to create expressionistic scenes of boredom, alienation, isolation, fear, and violence. Portrayed by strung-out spatters of caricature and collage, some pages of these wild situations are just stoned nonsense but others are quite effective ("He Entered the Bar with the Best Intentions" and the cat fight (?) on page 22 in particular). I don't know what the cash value of Het Moet . . . is, so send art instead. (PANISCUS REVUE)

Collected artwork from small press and mail art network regulars. Leans toward the violent and the grotesque. Offset printed in color throughout (Death Ship#1)

More chaos, really will take time if you want to comprehend every picture! Well done! (Infected By Dementia #2)

Collaboration with Claudio Parentela

Messy, splattered, collaged, schizophrenic, demented and utterly totally beautiful. Marcel Herms creates this (with a little help from a few collaborators). (Psionic Plastic Joy #8)

Collaboration with Marcel Ruijters

Euro Comics! Bizarre, intricate, ornate, yet sloppy, these aren’t sequential stories, but more like frenetic outbursts. There are allusions to stories, cryptic moments of plot like “he entered the bar with the best intensions”, but things seem to quickly fall apart after that. Drawings are splatters of blue, black, green and red. But the distorted and the grotesque are controlled, artful. An oddly precise outpouring of Euro-angst. Beautifully printed, these are worth checking out. (Broken Pencil #19)

Drawing by Kapreles (left) and collaboration with Rael Mail (right)

Het moet Onverstaanbaar #1

I wrote here before about the zines that I made with Monobrain but I also published a series of 3 issues with the title “Het Moet Onverstaanbaar” (it must be unintelligible). They were all printed by Knust.

The first issue had 24 pages of artwork by myself and contributions by/collaborations with Monobrain, Anne Nomrowski, Matthias Lehmann, Dietmar Vollmer, Kapreles,  AnneMiek Bibbe, & Zookie.

“It must unintelligible" is the translation of the title of this booklet. The front and back cover is a colourful work of figures in the art brut style. Inside the booklet, the schizophrenic world that is typical for art brut continues. Full page drawings and comics are collected in colour or black & white. It looks as a collection of expressionistic graphics and art brut or pictures drawn with an innocence of a child. All with a general dark atmosphere, this booklet is nuts and a very strong piece of work. The best there is which is available within Mail-Art.
(Sztuka Fabryka website)

collaboration with Matthias Lehmann

European underground comics are quite noticeably different to Australian or American ones. To put it very simply – they’re more abstract. In fact, this stuff strongly reminds me of art produced by mental patients, and that’s far from a negative comparison. This anthology is really special – full colour covers, some full colour pages inside, the rest is various single-colour pages. Text is in both Dutch and English. I love the dialogue too: Girl: “Your eyes are wonderful”, Boy: “Thanks. May I show you my glass eye collection?” and: “In 1958 two great writers met…. “Sick people are less frightening than well ones”. “And dead people are less frightening than live ones”. Het Moet Onverstaanbaar is simply enchanting.n(Sick Puppy#12)

Collaboration with AnneMiek Bibbe

These two Dutch productions (Burn, Knit & Erase + HMO #1) of underground graphix are great examples of just how creative an art form the zine can be. Printed on solid stock between heavier covers, nearly every page of these is a multi-colored full-bleed piece of work crammed with drawing, painting, collage, writing, pattern, and anything else that will fit. The artwork itself is rather crude, seemingly inspired by and created under the influence of the work and substances of choice of William Burroughs, Hunter Thompson, and underground comix, but in this format it has such an involving and kaleidoscopic effect that it works quite well. Marcel Herms and MonoBrain team up in Burn, Knit & Erase for a tale of a young man's voyage during the course of several radical life changes, while Het Moet Onverstaanbaar collects their work as well as that of contributors Anne Nomrowski, Matthias Lehmann, Annemiek Bibbe, Kapreles, and Dietmar Vollmer. I'm not sure what the prices are, so send a few bucks or something cool in trade. (PANISCUS REVUE)

Zwei (Burn, Knit & Erase + HMO #1) sehr geile Frickelhefte aus dem Holland. Wild, bunt, krickelig abstrakt (dat is dat wat man nich erkennen tut so ohne weiteres), antiautoritäres Collagenlayout, korrekte Verarbeitung (Pappdeckel) wirre, manchmal dadaistisch anmutende Kopfkunst. "Het moet onverstaanbaar" (Es bleibt unverständlich) mit einer ganzen Latte an verschiedenen Miterzeugern, "Burn, knit & erase" eine zweiköpfige Geburt von Herms und Monobrain (das passt ja jetzt) mit einer durchgehenden Storie ("a cruel sick bizarre story about a psychopath and his doctor") was durch die heftige Vermischung von Zeichnung, Collage, Farbe und Arschabdrücken durchaus nachvollziehbar ist. (Inside Artzine)

Collaboration with Kapreles

(…) outro exemplo de caos coloristaque pode subliñarse como un dos máis atractivos fanzines chegados, aínda que tamén o máis abstracto ou conceptual.”
(O Fanzine das Xornadas #8)

Oh Yeah, multicolour publication arrived from Holland. The cover seems to be painted by a six year old kid……and yes there are many paintings done by such primitive/simple way, but they are so well expressed! Fuck yeah cool!…noise chaos…haven't seen anything alike…recommended to those who like to strike their head into a pillar or to those who hold the pistol in their throats!” (Infected By Dementia #2)

Euro Comics! Bizarre, intricate, ornate, yet sloppy, these aren’t sequential stories, but more like frenetic outbursts. There are allusions to stories, cryptic moments of plot like “he entered the bar with the best intensions”, but things seem to quickly fall apart after that. Drawings are splatters of blue, black, green and red. But the distorted and the grotesque are controlled, artful. An oddly precise outpouring of Euro-angst. Beautifully printed, these are worth checking out. (Broken Pencil #19)

Collaboration with Kapreles

Earlier this year publisher XTRA published the book Ninja Sushi by Kapreles (Yves Albrechts). 

“Who doesn’t know them, the LSD drenched, largepored, bizarre creatures of the Belgian comic outlaw Kapreles? Of the Keith Haring of the Abnormal? The plumping, bluntly chopped monsters with their often Dadaistic-philosophical marching order? Large-sized figures, deeply black or gaudily colored, areas, and shadings that set your retina cells vibrating uncontrollably rhythmically while leafing through the book, and whose impacts you only really feel when you suffer your next fever attack. When you turn this book, you’ll notice that ‘comic’ doesn’t derive from ‘comical’, but from ‘cosmical’… Great!”
- Inside Artzine

In this book Kapreles included some drawings that he made with me. Here are some examples:

Burn, Knit & Erase

Last week I wrote about a publication that I made with Marc van Elburg (Monobrain) because it was reviewed in Teal Triggs’ book “Fanzines”.

But that was not the only publication the we made together. The first one was titled “Ontbranden, Breien & Wissen” (or “Burn, Knit & Erase”).

Some reactions:

Burn, Knit and Erase" is full-colour booklet, a bit smaller then A5-size and contains as they called it a 'true, sick, bizarre story about a psychopath and his doctor'. In 26 pages the story is told by means of dark, bizarre pictures, collages and drawings. This is the typical style of Marcel Herms and the contemporary comic-artists from the lowlands and beyond, such as Monobrain with whom he made this comic. Such comics are not made anymore of framed storyboards but almost full-page pictures where the pictures have a variety of styles: clear-line pictures, collages and much more. And the story has not become an important part anymore, because of sometimes to crazy. In this strange world Marcel Herms and Monobrain wander very well.
(Sztuka Fabryka website)

The back cover describes this as a cruel, sick, bizarre story about a psychopath and his doctor…which is certainly true. The story is whimsical, surreal and beautifully disturbing. ..but it's the images that make this comic/collage zine so outrageous. Start with crude scratchy ink drawings that capture a fucked up mental anguish, add confused pattern layers off eyeballs and maps, than underlay all that with fuzzy photo's of knives and smiles, and subliminal sarcasm. Very original. Frightfully wonderfull. (Proper Gander #32)

Vanuit een gezonde belangstelling van alles wat niet meteen mainstream is, viel ons kritische oog onlangs op een punkerig zeefdruk-artefact, getiteld “Ontbranden, Breien & Wissen” ofte “Burn, Knit & Erase”. (oké, het werd ons toegestuurd). In om en nabij de 25 pagina’s vertelt dit kunstwerkje het verhaal van een gedoodverfde loser en diens tot de verbeelding sprekende levensloop. “Hij was geen inspirerende jongeman, als mensch al verloren, allang verdwenen in een alles verdovende tunnel”, zo begint het verhaal. Wat dan volgt gaat elk normaal functionerend verstand te boven, de geboren loser ondergaat een ingrijpende operatie, waar hij nog gestoorder uitkomt en trekt vervolgens, vermomt als een onschuldig omaatje op rooftocht om tenslotte in een volgende ingreep door ene horrordocter Benway het leven te laten. Erg chaotisch en ziekelijk met andere woorden, net zoals de grafische voorstelling ervan. Dat neemt echter niet weg dat dit verhaal uiterst amusant is, met daarenboven een geslaagde haast expressionistische tekenstijl. De twee zieke geesten achter “Ontbranden, Breien & Wissen” zijn de Nederlanders Marcel Herms en een zekere Monobrain.
(Gonzo Circus #42, november/december 1999)

Dit keer een werkje uit het striptekenaarsnetwerk van onze illustere illustrator Kapreles. En wel “Ontbranden, Breien & Wissen”. Een groezelig boekwerkje waarin een hallucinerend en tweetalig stripverhaal valt te lezen van Marcel Herms en Monobrain. De laatste is ook actief op het muzikale front met The Fckn’ Bstrds en The Smart-Laps. Zelf noemen ze het een “true, sick, bizarre story about a psychopath and his doctor”. En zo is het maar net. Niet voor de kleinzielige gevoeligen onder ons.
(Opscene #77, juni/juli 2000)

Colourful tragic comedy about a loser who wanted to change himself completely with doctors (deity) help. Chaotic drawings (even sometimes gorish) with photo's (of humans) in the background. Psychotic. Guess how it ends!…Or better get it! Well done! (Infected By Dementia #2).

Zwei (Burn, Knit & Erase + HMO #1) sehr geile Frickelhefte aus dem Holland. Wild, bunt, krickelig abstrakt (dat is dat wat man nich erkennen tut so ohne weiteres), antiautoritäres Collagenlayout, korrekte Verarbeitung (Pappdeckel) wirre, manchmal dadaistisch anmutende Kopfkunst. "Het moet onverstaanbaar" (Es bleibt unverständlich) mit einer ganzen Latte an verschiedenen Miterzeugern, "Burn, knit & erase" eine zweiköpfige Geburt von Herms und Monobrain (das passt ja jetzt) mit einer durchgehenden Storie ("a cruel sick bizarre story about a psychopath and his doctor") was durch die heftige Vermischung von Zeichnung, Collage, Farbe und Arschabdrücken durchaus nachvollziehbar ist. (Inside Artzine)

Ballustrada

Some weeks ago I sent a piece of mail-art to the Dutch literary magazine Ballustrada.
This year Ballustrada celebrates its 25th anniversary. Therefore Ko de Jonge organizes a mail-art project with the theme “Art For The Millions”. I’ll write more about that later.

Ko’s invitation for this project reminded me of his last mail-art project in 2010.

The exhibition of that project was reviewd in the paper. Here's the review (unfortunately in Dutch):

De postbode moet meewerken

donderdag 04 februari 2010 | PZC

"Op zoek naar het beste wat Zeeland op kunstgebied te bieden heeft, bezocht ik drie tentoonstellingen met als gemeenschappelijke noemer collage, communicatie en kritiek. (…) Van Geluwe heeft met talloze andere kunstenaars contact, onder wie de Vlissinger Ko de Jonge. In diens presentatie 'Haaks op' tref ik dan ook een bijdrage van Van Geluwe aan. Die maakt deel uit van een reeks waarmee De Jonge vijf jaar geleden startte en die in het Zeeuwse literaire tijdschrift Ballustrada wordt gepubliceerd. De Jonge stuurt kunstenaars een A-viertje met daarop een horizontale en een verticale balk en een fragment van een krantenfoto. De idee daarachter is dat kunst vaak haaks staat op de werkelijkheid en steeds een nieuwe waarheid toont. Een ander motief is naar mijn idee ook de relatieve willekeur van datgene wat als nieuws aan ons wordt voorgeschoteld. Vaak ontbeert het bovendien de context om het te kunnen duiden. Is die er wel, dan is het nog maar de vraag of wij de gebeurtenis op waarde kunnen schatten.

De reacties die De Jonge ontvangt drukken een scala aan opvattingen en associaties uit. Soms gaan ze in op het beeld dat hij aanreikt. In andere gevallen wordt dat ontkend of bedekt. Net als in het werk van Van Geluwe voert een kritische blik de boventoon. Die kan ironisch, cynisch of gewoon grappig zijn. Maar ik kwam ook bijdragen tegen die verder gaan, zoals die van Marcel Herms. Hij ontving een collage waarin Ko de Jonge een foto plakte met een fragment van iemand die een machinegeweer bedient. Herms gebruikte de balkjes als kader en tekende er drie figuren in. Eén van hen wordt zowel met een mes als met een revolver belaagd. De combinatie van de twee beelden verbindt het geweld op kleine schaal met dat op grote schaal en is daarmee vervuld van een kritische, tragische lading.(…)”

I tried to translate the review:

The postman must cooperate

Thursday, February 4, 2010 | PZC

"Looking for the best art Zealand has to offer, I visited three exhibitions with as common denominator collage, communication and criticism.

(...) From Geluwe has contact with numerous other artists, including Ko de Jonge. In his presentation, "Perpendicular to" I also find a contribution from Van Geluwe. This project is part of a series that started five years ago and is published in the literary magazine Ballustrada. Ko de Jonge sends an page of paper showing a horizontal and a vertical bar and a fragment of a newspaper. The idea behind that is that art is often at odds with reality and shows a new truth every time. Another motive is, I believe, the relative arbitrariness of what we are being presented as news. Often it also lacks the context to be able to interpret. Is it there, it is still questionable whether we can estimate the event value.

The responses Ko de Jonge received express a range of views and associations. Sometimes they react to the image he sent. In other cases, the image is denied or covered. As in the work of Van Geluwe a critical eye dominates. Which may ironically, cynical or just funny. But I also saw contributions that had more, such as Marcel Herms’ contribution. He received a collage in which Ko de Jonge taped a detail of a photograph of a person who operates a machine gun. Herms used the bars as a framework and drew three figures. One of them is attacked with both a knife and a gun. By uniting these images he combines violence on a small scale and violence on a large scale and adds a critical and tragic load (...). "

Screw, Crash & Explode

Some time ago I discovered (thanks to  Kapreles) that one of the publications that I made with Marc van Elburg a.k.a. Monobrain is reviewed in the book Fanzines by Teal Triggs. I quote: "This is a high-impact visual presentation of the most interesting fanzines ever produced."

It's all about an A5-size zine that was printed by KNUST with the title "Screw, crash & Explode". And this is what Teal Triggs writes about it: "the frenetic nature of each printed page is enhanced by the intensity of each drawing and the fullness of 'doodles', splotches and graphic marks."

I still have some copies of it for those who are interested….

This is what some others wrote about this publication:

Here's another mind-altering collaboration between Monobrain and Marcel Herms. It's a multi-colored affair (stencil-printed, I believe), each page an explosion of drawings and other graphics. Some pages appear to be Monobrain doodles with other things underneath and others appear to be jam drawings, all the while telling the story of a man condemned by technology. If this sounds like your cup of tea then you'll definitely want to contact Anima Mal Nata. Between the two of these guys, there's a whole lot of art brut for your lonely eyeballs. (Poopsheet)  http://poopsheet.blogspot.com/

This is an explosion that happens in about 4 colors. There isn’t much in the way of words and the art is very frenetic. It looks like they ran the pages through the copy machine several times, each layer adding a different color ink, so that a primitive silkscreen print quality is achieved. This zine seems like an interesting solution to not having access to expensive art making resource. Any how, back to the artwork. There are all types of lines and exposions of ink and strange splotches and random graphic images taken from unknown sources reeking havoc, colliding and separating. Overall the tone is one of a crowded mind sort of cracking open and the contents sort of landing where they will, everything on top of the other, with little reason and even less rhyme. Maybe that’s how things really are. (Proper Gander #43)

Well, so what hides under these three deeds? Or maybe firstly you would like to know who expressed those actions in various colours and different drawing forms? The answer is Marcel Herms and Monobrain – the two dutch noisicians doing some bizarre artwork too. If anyone have seen Anima Mal Nata and/or Monobrain/Truck van Rental releases you can easily imagine what these two brains and hands could do if jointed. The locution “difficult music for difficult people” fits to that stuff very well, but let’s throw out the word “music” and fit in tyhe word “art”, or better leave everything in it’s place and just add “art” (this zine) to the background! Now it’s really difficult and complicated. (Infected By Dementia #4)

STIK - zine

Here's a zine with my art in it. For more information (or if you want to order a copy) you can go to the STIK website