James Beckett
Selected Works
The Sceptical Structures of Max: 01
2019sheet chipboard, tubular chipboard profile, historical and modern objects, Flatbed printed text
237 × 314 × 39 cm (93 ¼ × 123 ⅝ × 15 ⅜ inches)
Texts (from left to right)Max Himmelheber - Scheidewege Journal, 1975. 'Symptom Therapy and Cure using the Example of the Waste Water Problem'HOKKAIDO. "In the summer of 1953 I initiated operation of a factory in Hokkaido which had been built in German-Japanese cooperation. On the day when the first trial run was to begin, a Shinto priest came to our boiler house early in the morning, where the Japanese staff had gathered with the boss. Together with his altar boys, he attached red prayer strips to manometers, water level glasses and valves of the steam boilers. Then followed a short rite, which I interpreted as a consecration or blessing.'We apologize to the spirit of the water for seizing the spring and for forcing it to drive our steam turbines', a young Japanese engineering colleague told me".Dense particle fibreboard found in private Shinto shrine at the back of Villa Himmelheber, Baiersbronn, DEBois Durci, 1855 - now. 'The Plastics Historical Society'.BOIS Durci (French: hardened wood) could perhaps be described as the best Victorian achievement of a 'plastic' based on an animal polymer. The technique was patented in France in 1856 by Francois Charles Lepage, which he then declared "A New Composition of materials which may be employed as a substitute for wood, leather, bone, metal and other hard or plastic substances'".His composition was made up from blood (from the Paris slaughterhouses) and powdered wood, mixed with colouring to simulate wood. A recipe typically used 4 parts of ebony or rose wood "flour" and 1 part of ox blood albumin. The paste was then dried in a stove maintained at a constant temperature, then ground to a fine powder. In this state it was then pressed in heated steel moulds by a powerful hydraulic press, resulting in a dense and glossy finish.The combination of wood and the organic molecules of blood albumin increase the wood's resistance to mechanical agents considerably, and the procedure's leniency towards details make it a perfect material for statuettes, medallions, and various objects d'art.The SOCIETE DU BOIS DURCI was established to produce desk items, especially decorative inkwell stands and plaques. They continued to make Bois Durci until abvout 1920, by which time it had been superseded by newer plastic materials, such as bakelite.Scheidewege, 1971 - 2000. 'Journal for Sceptical Thinking'.CROSS-roads first appeared in 1971 as a reflective journal published by the Max Himmelheber Foundation. til 2000 it dealt with controversial ecological, philosophical, cultural and historical issues. As one of the first periodicals to work on the concept of environmental sustainability, it displayed a culturally conservative distrust of unexamined technical and scientific progress, and was thus subtitled "für skeptisches Denken" - a journal for sceptical thinking.Scheidewege served as a platform for Himmelheber and his at times dreamy and unashamedly romantic contributions, such as "On the Beauty of Whales and Dolphins". At times more ominous than hopeful, the Scheidewege manifesto claimed examination can and must begin everywhere: "Yesterday cannot be repeated, but tomorrow cannot simply be an improved from of today. Retreating into tradition is as hopeless as the notion that progress has an appropriate mechanism of self-regulation that will finally turn everything in the right direction".As a reflection from Himmelheber (and amongst its contributors, a larger community of engineers) Scheidewege is much overlooked as an untapped potential toward the Green movement.
The Sceptical Structures of Max: 04
2019sheet chipboard, tubular chipboard profile, historical and modern objects, Flatbed printed text
185 × 145 × 39 cm (72 ⅞ × 57 ⅛ × 15 ⅜ inches)
Chipboard Burger, current (12/11/2019). 'Visual marketing - alibaba.com'CHIPS usually go with a burger - not really into one. Here is an example of a company on wholesale website Alibaba, presenting chipboard in combination with natural, mostly edible products such as fruits and wheat.Wanhua is a Chinese company founded in 2006, that uses such imagery, to promote their crop straw ecological board, made with formaldehyde-free resin, namelynon-toxic isocyanate (ie MDI), of which they are also one of the biggest producers 200,000 cubic meters of strawboard year, with plans to expand its capacity to 1,000,000 cubic meters by 2022.The attention-grabbing image of particle board pressed between hamburger buns is comical, and is possibly thought of in order to attract attention to the colour of the pictured particle board, with its particular shade of brown that resambles a cooked burger patty. A patty has more in common that just colour with this particle board however: it too is consistitued from minced parts which are then pressed together with force; and bound by a medium (egg, in the case of a burger) much like the phenol-resin for particle boards.
The Sceptical Structures of Max: 06
2019sheet chipboard, tubular chipboard profile, historical and modern objects, Flatbed printed text
115 × 57 × 30 cm (45 ¼ × 22 ½ × 11 ¾ inches)
Karl Nothhelfer, 1900 - 1980. 'Detail of repair on the aging Villa Himmelheber'.INDUSTRIAL and occasional residential architect Karl Nothhelfer was in fact better known for his furniture. Woking mostly in solid woods, his material set was later to be dominated by the particleboard produced by Himmelheber. It is assumed they were friends as, Nothhelfer designed both the laboratory and a private residence for Himmelheber, in his hometown of Baiserbronn. The laboratory has since been destroyed, but the 'Villa Himmelheber' residence still stands.On his regular trips to Japan, Himmelheber was introduced to Shintoism and animism and would draw inspiration from both the belief systems and Japanese culture through the rest of his life. these influences found their way into the architecture of the Villa Himmelheber.The building displays a modernist simplicity typical of Nothhelfers practice - further incorporating the exotic fascinations of Himmleheber. the exterior panels are reminiscent of 'shoji' - originally screens fashioned from translucent paper over frames of wood. There is an interior rock garden, and further up behind the building a private Shinto shrine.Detail of a cement repair to an outside wall, reproduced here in a three dimensional rendering. Rear of the Villa Himmelheber, Baiersbronn, DE
The Sceptical Structures of Max: 08
2019Sheet chipboard, tubular chipboard profile, historical chipboard from the Himmelheber archive, circa 1945 - 1957 / lastra di truciolato, sezione di truciolato tubolare, truciolato storico dall'archivio Himmelheber, c. 1945-1957
121 × 58 × 100 cm (47 ⅝ × 22 ⅞ × 39 ⅜ inches)
The Sceptical Structures of Max: 09
2019Sheet chipboard, tubular chipboard profile, historical chipboard from the Himmelheber archive, circa 1945 - 1957
121 × 58 × 100 cm (47 ⅝ × 22 ⅞ × 39 ⅜ inches)
The Sceptical Structures of Max: 02
2019sheet chipboard, tubular chipboard profile, historical and modern objects, Flatbed printed text
238 × 140 × 39 cm (93 ¾ × 55 ⅛ × 15 ⅜ inches)
Couplings
2018objects from the collection of National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, coupled with visually similar consumer products, purchased both in Ukraine and abroad
Dimensions variable
Couplings
2018objects from the collection of National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, coupled with visually similar consumer products, purchased both in Ukraine and abroad
Dimensions variable
Couplings
2018objects from the collection of National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, coupled with visually similar consumer products, purchased both in Ukraine and abroad
Dimensions variable
Negative Space: A Scenario Generator for Clandestine Building in Africa (analogue version)
2017canvas covered boards with sticker text, framed xerox with pen, aged wooden blocks, shelvings, glass
Negative Space: A Scenario Generator for Clandestine Building in Africa
2015wooden blocks, robotics, glass, canvas, stickers
Venice Biennale Version: 300 × 811 × 380 cm (118 ⅛ × 319 ¼ × 149 ⅝ inches)
Beckett takes a rich yet little-known African Modernist tradition as a point of departure for his work Negative Space: A Scenario Generator for Clandestine Building in Africa (2015). It consists of an automated storage and retrieval machine (such as those used in warehouses and pharmacies), reconfigured to arrange wooden building blocks to create portraits of specific Modernist buildings across Africa. These small models, however, reference not the actual buildings, but rather their negative spaces, alluding to the buildings’ potential for illegal expansion of living or workspaces.Beckett riprende una ricca e poco conosciuta tradizione modernista africana come punto di partenza per il suo lavoro Negative Space: A Scenario Generator for Clandestine Building in Africa (2015). Esso consiste in una macchina di stoccaggio e recupero automatizzata (come quelle utilizzate nei magazzini e nelle farmacie), riconfigurata per disporre i mattoncini in legno per creare ritratti di specifici edifici modernisti in tutta l'Africa. Questi piccoli modelli, tuttavia, non si riferiscono agli edifici reali, ma piuttosto ai loro spazi negativi, alludendo al potenziale di espansione illegale degli spazi residenziali o di lavoro.
Tara Brown 3
2017wood, UV printed glass, custom made Guinness velvet, steel rod, car part from Lotus Elan, 1600, Type 26 S1 Roadster (same model Tara Brown crashed)
195 × 112 × 50 cm (76 ¾ × 44 ⅛ × 19 ⅝ inches)
Tara Brown 1
2017wood, UV printed glass, custom made Guinness velvet, steel rod, car part from Lotus Elan, 1600, Type 26 S1 Roadster (same model Tara Brown crashed)
211 × 105 × 34 cm (83 ⅛ × 41 ⅜ × 13 ⅜ inches)
Lady Henrietta Guinness 1
2017Wood, UV printed mirrored glass, custom-made Guinness velvet, steel rod, drapery, tassels, porcelain tucan
185 × 112 × 210 cm (72 ⅞ × 44 ⅛ × 82 ⅝ inches)
Palace Ruin
2016'Palace Ruin' is a reconstruction of a fragment of the former Paleis voor Volksvlijt, Amsterdam’s own Crystal Palace. Having gone up in flames in 1929, an archival photo shows a flank of the building amid a haze of smoke and debris, just after attempts to douse the fire. Beckett recreates this moment in the form of a large sculpture—part horror house, part memorial—which later functions as a stage for thematic concerts and an architectural lecture series.
Video
Biography
Gallery Exhibitions
Other Venues
Selected Press
CV
1999
BAFA, Technikon Natal, Durban, South Africa
2020
‘The sceptical structures of Max’, T293, Rome
2019
‘The sceptical structures of Max’, Cityscapes Foundation, Amsterdam
‘Strange Glow’, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2017
‘Cray Extentions’, with Narcisse Tordoir, Wilfried Lenz, Rotterdam, Netherlands
‘The Guinness Curse’, T293, Rome
2016
‘Palace Ruin’, Public Art Project, Amsterdam
2015
Hospice: Collaboration with Artun Arasli, Markus Luettgen Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2014
‘KaVo Zahnarztstuhl Regie 1520 A’, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam, Netherlands
‘Dowsing Schools: Preliminary Findings and Corresponding Survey Kit’, Artspace,
Auckland
‘Forced readings’, Lookout, Aldeburgh, United Kingdom
2013
‘That’s That, That Way ‘Round, Basically – As You Probably Know’, Artists’ Club
Coffrefort, Brussels
‘Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth’, TWAAS, New York
2012
‘Of Animal and Inventory’, Blank Projects, Cape Town
‘Door and Milk Permutations’, Luettgenmeijer, Berlin
2011
‘My Friend André’s Grandmother’s Sawmill’, Neuer Kunstverein, Vienna
‘Khevsurvite Derivative (potential dwellers in ravines)’, T293, Rome
2010
‘Untitled’, Museum Hilversum, Hilversum
2009
‘Bagnoli (and Italsider as extract – arrangement)’, T293, Naples
2008
‘Limburgerhof (The Agricultural Extract-Arrangements)’, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam
‘Dalmine (and other industry extract – arrangements)’, LuettgenMeijer, Berlin
‘Spade Scrapes 1 – 6, Van Zijll Langhout Gallery, Amsterdam
2007
‘Living Registration’, T293, Naples
2006
‘Living Registration’, BüroFriedrich, Berlin
‘Untitled Installation’, Natal Society of Arts, Durban
2003
‘Climb on Shoulders to Peep Over and Dismount with Lips in Hedge’,
NICC, Koninklijk Museum Voor Schoene Kunsten, Antwerp
2002
‘Extract arrangements (tribute to Mucha)’, PLUS Gallery, Dusseldorf
1999
‘Home’, Natal Society of Arts, Durban
‘Breathing Space’, The Yard, B/W Photography, London
‘Breathing Space’, Natal Society of Arts/ Palmer street studios, Durban
2022
‘When Things Are Beings’, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2021
‘Ohm’, Electriciteitsfabriek, The Hague, Netherlands
2020
‘Taming the Horror Vacui’, RIB, Rotterdam
‘Spatial bias’, Lesage, Auderghem, Belgium
2019
‘Parallax’, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam
‘Now is the Time’, Wuzhen, China
2018
‘Revolutionize!’, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kiev, Ukraine
‘The Assassination of Leon Trotsky’, David Lewis Gallery, New York
‘Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More’, 1st Riga International Biennial of
Contemporary Art, Latvia
2017
‘w serves imperialism’, W139, Amsterdam
‘Flatlands’, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, MCAD, Manila
‘Witness’, 1st Karachi Biennial, Karachi
‘Dead Darlings’, Unseen, Amsterdam
‘La lama di Procopio’, Nuovo Spazio di Casso, Casso
‘Utopia/Dystopia, Part I and II’, MAAT, Museum of Art, Architecture and
Technology, Lisbon
‘James Beckett with Narcisse Tordoir’, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam
‘Survival Guide’, Art Gallery of Alberta, Alberta
2016
‘What Next – picture tomorrow’, 38CC, Delft
‘Apprentice/Master #20’, Kunst Podium T, Tilburg
‘Hospice’ (con Artun Alaska Arasli), Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam
‘Art of control’, Hacking Habitat, Utrecht
2015
‘Next Day’, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam
‘Hospice’ (con Artun Alaska Arasli), Markus Lüttgen, Cologne
‘Colmare il bocciolo/Combattere il verme/Regolare il calore/Eludere il
vento/Sfuggire all’ape’, Icastica, Arezzo
‘Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the Optimism of the Will’, 5th
Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art
‘Personne et les autres’, Belgian Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale
2014
‘Homing’, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam
‘A Thousand Varied Uses’, NoguerasBlanchard, Madrid
‘Annals of the Twenty-Ninth Century’, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge
2013
‘Liquid Assets’, Steirischer Herbst, Graz
2013 ‘Scenographies’, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam
‘Dread – Fear in the age of technological acceleration’, De Hallen, Haarlem
‘Artificial Amsterdam’, De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam
‘Goodbye Lukas’, Amstel 41, Amsterdam
‘to scrap a proportion’, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam
2012
‘Beyond Imagination’, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
‘If A Tree…’, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg
‘When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes’, CCA Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Arts, San Francisco
‘Dak’Art Biennale of Contemporary African Art’, Dakar
2011
‘Verzameld Werk (section folklorique)’, Zeeuwsmuseum, Middelburg
‘Rapid Art 1’, Villa Dessauer, Stadtgalerie Bamberg
‘Expérience Pommery # 9 “La Fabrique Sonore”’, Pommery, Reims
‘Blinds’, Huis a/d Werf, Utrecht
‘XV Unidentified Species’, Galeria Boavista, Lisbon
‘Historical Structures – New Existentialism Part 2′, Kurator, Zurich
2010
‘Playground – Zaklady na Zycie (Plant-Life)’, Stuk, Leuven
‘Gold for wood’, Veemvloer, Amsterdam
‘Doodgewoon’, Museum Hilversum, Hilversum
‘Capturing Metamorphosis’, Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam
‘Woodman, Woodman, Spare That Tree’, Lüttgenmeijer, Berlin
‘Tutta la memoria del mondo’, Gam – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e
Contemporanea, Turin
2009
‘Blinds’, Festival aan de Werf, Utrecht
‘Open Source’, Biennial of Art in Public Space, Amsterdam
2008
‘For the First and the Second Time’, CAC – Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius
‘3rd Young Artists Biennale- Re – Construction’, Bucharest
2007
‘Between Thought and Sound…’, The Kitchen, New York
‘Chaos City 2’, Universal Studios, Beijing
‘A for Alibi’, Uqbar Foundation, De Appel, Amsterdam
‘Museum of Noise’, Koelnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
‘Sirens’, Auditory Alerts, (Curator of), at 66-East, Amsterdam
2006
‘Here as the Centre of the World’, Curator and Workshop, Taipei
‘Vacuum 2’, VHDG, Leeuwarden
‘Practicum 06a’, N – Collective in Mediamatic, Amsterdam
2005
‘Adam’, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam
‘Radio Days’, De Appel, four radio programmes, Amsterdam
‘Dutch Open’, De Balie, Amsterdam
‘Low Tech’, Arte Amsterdam, Amsterdam
2004
‘Hit and Run’, Platform and Smart Projects, Istanbul
‘Values’, 11th Serbian Biennale Visual Arts, Pancevo
‘DAI/ NAI’, Nanjing Art InstituteI, Nanjing
2003
‘Vacuum’, Opkomst Yaarbeurs, Utrecht
‘A Partial Museum of Noise’, Gem – Museum of Contemporary Art, Prix de
Rome, Den Haag
‘Emmaus-Ölberg-Gemeinde’, Death, Berlin
2002
‘Rendevous’, Centre for Contemporary European Art, Xiamen
‘Dokumenta’, collaboration Narcisse Tordoir / Meschac Gaba, Kassel
‘Bessengue City’, radio station workshop, Doula, Cameroon
‘Filiale Africa’, Spar Kassa, Dusseldorf
‘Noise of Coincidence’, Cucosa Contemporary Art Space, Rotterdam
‘A Haunted house of Art’, Outline Project Space, Amsterdam
2001
‘Home Made, Stichting V/H de Gemeente’, Leeuwarden
‘Karl Hofer Society’, with Khwezi Gule/ Robin Rhode, Berlin
‘CLICK’, Centre Soleil d’Afrique, Bamako, Mali
‘Adrift’, Las Palmas, Rotterdam
2000
‘Pulse’, NSA, Rijksakademie R.A.I.N., Durban
1999
‘Civic Centre’, Graduates of Natal Tech, Johannesburg
1998
‘Black and Blue’, Palmer Street Studios, Durban
1997
‘Thirty Seven Songs’, Curated 37 artists, Durban
‘Stel Hotten Totten Ten Ten Toon’, Collaboration with Sandberg Institute, Bat Centre, Durban