Artistic “Rip-Off”

Torn Posters series, The Artist, L 130” x H 59”, 2018. all photos courtesy of the artist.

The process of peeling, carving, and stripping into the numerous layers of paper is an exploration into the archaeological depths of urban society. The final art work is an X-ray into a very eclectic body of papers, texts, and uncovered messages that belong to our daily lives. — frederik langhendries.

By Ann Carper

If you were near Madison Square Garden on a recent October afternoon, you may have seen a man on a ladder next to a construction fence with a scraper, chisel, and hammer in his hands. What may at first glance have looked like a one-man clean-up of Manhattan’s streetscape was actually Belgian visual artist Frederik Langhendries harvesting raw material for future art projects.

As the recent 39th Street resident recounts, “When you’re standing on a ladder tearing off layers of posters on 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City, you meet a lot of interested people who spontaneously interact with you—tourists (asking for directions), artists (taking pictures of the poetic beauty of the paper coming off a wall), neighbors (wondering if the store that remained closed for years is finally going back in business), homeless people (rooting through my tool bag), and the police (watching, but not objecting).” Fortunately, he said, “nobody put spokes in my wheels” to interfere with the initial phases of his large paper compositions, part of the Torn Posters series that he began in 2018. The series consists of transforming old posters torn from forgotten urban places: walls in back-streets, abandoned buildings turned into giant illegal billboards, construction sites, and closed shop windows.

Frederik scrapes old posters from a wall in Manhattan. The thick layers of paper provide interesting raw material for future art works.

Frederik collected about 200 feet of paper material from several NYC sites that day, driving them back to DC in a rented U-Haul van. The basement of his small house is now full and ready for its contents to be given new life.

I had a number of questions for Frederik about his art, his process, and his thoughts on Burleith and DC since his arrival on 39th Street earlier this year.

You work in a variety of printmaking mediums, including etching, woodcut, lithography, and screen printing. Do you have an overall artistic approach, or does it depend on the medium? I like experiencing new techniques, and each of them is complementary and mutually enriching. Each medium helps me highlight different facets of my art. I had been doing a lot of printmaking in Europe before getting into my current collage work. I’m considering combining collage with other media in the future.

Torn Posters series, Looking for a qualified wizard, L 55.5” x H 69.50”, 2019.

What got you started on the Torn Posters series? I don’t know exactly, but I keep my eyes open to let new ideas come in easily. I´ve always been intrigued by raw materials I find in the street, and I have a big interest in languages, words, patterns, and the rich variety of graphic expressions.

Your studio is now full of posters. What’s the next step? Although I try hard to keep my work space as empty as possible (just kidding!), having a stockpile of raw materials does reassure me. At the start, I pick out large fragments of posters. I start cutting, carving, and peeling off the chronological layers of posters to reveal the older layers underneath. During the carving process, I feel like I’m exploring the archaeological depths of urban society. I can rarely envision how it’s going to end up. Stripping layers of posters is very stimulating because you do not know what interesting text, bright color, or funny face you’re going to find. Several weeks later, when the paper composition is finished, I have a specialized company mount it on a sturdy board.

Torn Posters series, Looking for a qualified wizard (detail), 2019.

When you’re removing posters, do you look for particular kinds of images, colors, typography? Do you have an idea in mind ahead of time how you’ll use and combine them? Removing posters is an adventurous and tough job. Once I find good posters, especially as material gets scarcer, I try to get fragments as large and as thick as possible without thinking at that point about their future transformation. You never know in advance where you´re going to find them, and they may be removed at any time. And then I have to carry them and often dry them because they may be soaked by the rain or fresh glue. I work under a certain stress because the best poster “sources” are never the most convenient: streets are crowded, I´m often interrupted as I work, or I may feel a little uneasy working under a deserted dark bridge. But the friendly contacts with passers-by and neighboring shopkeepers are valuable, and I never hesitate to ask for help or to borrow something: a ladder, a cutter because mine has just broken, a band-aid because I cut my finger, a rope for the packaging. Also, paper can be really heavy, so on a recent trip I was lucky that five motivated teenaged skateboarders helped me cram a 400-pound fragment into my car that seemed far too small.

I like the idea that you don’t combine poster fragments from different cities. Why is that? I store the poster material in large bundles labelled with the date and place of collection. This almost scientific approach is important to avoid blending material into one single art work. I want to respect the spirit of the location by not interfering in the chronological, social, linguistic, or cultural context.

fortunately for Frederik, this directive is frequently ignored.

Do different cities tend to have different source material? Yes, posters definitely reflect the place and the people of their times. You will probably not find posters advertising a tractor pull in a capital city or an opera announcement in the middle of a corn field. Despite the digital evolution and the growth of social media, posters are still pretty common in Europe and other parts of the world, whereas American urban revitalization policies and gentrification have widely succeeded in banning them from the streets. This may give a cleaner look to the neighborhoods, but for me it makes finding material more challenging. Of course, I would be thrilled if somebody would bring over exotic material from far-off regions like India or Russia with special alphabets, abundant ornamentation, or political messages.

A lot of your art incorporates quotidian materials like cardboard, plywood, Kraft and shredded paper, punched holes, etc. What is it about these that attracts you? I like simple and industrialized materials for their beauty, honest looks, and interesting shapes. Their imperfections and eroded surfaces stimulate my creativity much more than a snow-white sheet of glossy paper. Recycling has certainly influenced people of my generation to use discarded materials. But this isn’t a new thing: look how Alexander Calder got inspired as early as the 1920s by using old iron wires to create his fantastic animal sculptures and mobiles!

Are you working on any other art projects at the moment? What’s the best way for people to see your work? I´m currently building a network within the DC art scene, and I’ve met fascinating people so far. Because of my passion for the printed image, I joined the Washington Print Club as soon as I arrived. In the future, I would like to share a studio with other contemporary artists because sharing stimulates creativity. And, I’d definitely like to show my work to the public. People should not hesitate to get in touch through my website, where my art work is featured, or via email to frederik.langhendries@gmail.com.

Any impressions of Washington and Burleith so far that you’d like to share? DC is an exciting place to work, and I like saying that Burleith is heaven on earth as a green, cozy, and charming place to live. The museums in Washington are top notch, and I like their diversity, ranging from the intimate Kreeger to the giants on the Mall. It has been a great pleasure to discover and rediscover masterpieces of American art and dynamic places like STABLE Arts and the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. And there is still so much to see and do. After almost six months in the US, I can confidently say that people here are incredibly open minded, friendly, and welcoming and this is so heartwarming.

Frederik has begun working on a series of smaller posters made from Paris street posters (below).

Poster Play series, Yellow/Black I”, Paris 18e Arr., L 12” x H 12”, 2019.

Poster Play series, On, Paris 18e Arr., Green/Pink, L 8” x H 8”, 2019.