FOOTNOTES TO PUBLIC SPACE
Half a basketball court on a new housing estate, ending abruptly at a footpath, a phone booth rather optimistically labelled 'HOTEL', a fire extinguisher affixed to a pillarbox, and a row of coat hooks on a sign welcoming tourists to the French Alps. Maker unknown. And who is likely to wonder about the maker of such casual additions to the 'public' furniture? Yet there is an artist behind these often absurd footnotes to our public space: Harmen de Hoop. An artist who refuses to sign his work.
He works without a client, installing his 'landscape adjuncts' illegally and anonymously. He does not publicize their installation, nor does he force the passer-by to pay attention. As an example, he decorated an entrance to a Rotterdam metro station with the word 'HOTEL' in huge letters, as if inviting all vagrants and junkies to spend the night there. Where an asphalted path through the woods crossed a sandy track he painted markings for cyclists to get in lane; puzzling because of their pointlessness, but not unfamiliar either. And it is entirely in keeping with De Hoop's adage that his work must merge imperceptibly with the surroundings.
Anonymity is an essential aspect of his work, since it has consequences for the way in which it is experienced. He retreats from his creation, thereby denying the spectator the frame of reference of the 'art' concept.
One of the consequences of anonymity is the reaction to De Hoop's BASKETBALL COURT (Amsterdam). He painted the lines of a basketball court in a yard though these were abruptly halted halfway by a footpath. After a few weeks the local council set up the 'missing' basket. Later, when it proved not to be what it seemed, the lines were removed but the basket stayed where it was.
BASKETBALL COURT (1996) AMSTERDAM Citycouncil (?) placed basket
De Hoop's objects function within the linguistic codes of the setting, say a city, in which they have been placed. A city, which suggests that it is an organic unit, is often no more than a combination of happenstances, a web of holes. De Hoop uses his work to accentuate the loose ends, the incongruities and the failures which make up a city. And in that sense too, he wants to reflect fragmentation, to provide a picture that is more realistic than the suggestion of unity.
His objects are suggestions included in a context of varying opinions on the surroundings, without resulting in a final judgement. Instead of coming up with the absolute, liberating work of art, Harmen de Hoop weaves his network of footnotes, quotation and question marks through the urban structure. There are no exclamation marks in this vocabulary.
More recently Harmen de Hoop gets people to participate in his work. Sometimes as 'Proposals for permanent outdoor sculptures' or as protagonists in a staged event. As with his anonymous sculptures in public space the working method remained the same; he visits and photographs an unlimited number of locations in the chosen city. Until he finds the right site for his intervention. Due to the temporary nature of the work, these actions are documented and presented in the form of publications.
Texts: Robert-Jan Muller, Jason Coburn, Harmen de Hoop.