Vertikal Klub
"Vertikal Klub" is an ongoing project of Willem Oorebeek, begun in 1994, with its latest iteration having been shown at Yale Union (July 2015, Portland, OR). This book, Vertikal Klub, serves as the manual for future installations. A blueprint for a relationship—between human form and how its form translates to print. Like much of his work, the artist establishes connections that are both clear and abstract, pushing the boundaries of absurdity along the way.
The figures in "Vertikal Klub" are cut from advertisements, selected based on a set of rules (looking forward at camera, full length). Some figures you're given entry into their history with text, but layered, in a graphic form. Some are left as complete strangers, as strange forms, empty. The lithographic reproductions are raw and a little crudely presented, but clearly made by hand, and finished by tool. It's a map, to something familiar that goes off the road, too. Edition of 500 numbered copies.
Willem Oorebeek (NL), artist, whose work is based in the myriad techniques associated with the printing process. Multiplicity, seriality, and reproduction are some of the recurring themes emphasized. Image and language are brought together as comparative tools and as combined forms as a way of revitalizing the nature of representation, in both figure and symbol.