STILL/LIFE

(…) Koen Theys, too, appears to be fascinated by "found still-Iifes" (see p. 62-65). His registrations of items of town appurtenance and his installations with real pieces of park furniture provide a witty, visual commentary on the clutter of official objects and obstacles in public spaces. Lamp-posts, waste bins, road signs, benches and security cameras turn the public environment into a giant still-life. Interiors, too, are rich in sti!l~lifes and some of the arrangements, cumulations and installations contained in his photographic reportage of situations encountered in a number of nursery schools in and around Brussels are hilarious. The most, glaring colour combinations and almost pornographic pictorial associations suggest a world of latent fear and terror, though also one of unconscious humour and unintentional surrealism. The unrestrained, well~meaning creativity of the nursery school teachers and the comical attempts of the toddlers to copy indeed appear to send up the art world and its unwritten standards and conventions. (…)

Johan Pas - catalogue STILL/LIFE Rockoxhuis, Antwerp
dec. 2000 (excerpt)

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