@rienschellemans - Tumblr Blog

Rituals Union WiP-G* August 2025 Pink House press, Syros

(7 x arga6000, randomly compiled)

(T) 2024

Not to be confused with ㅜ or ㄒ.

When looking for the right letter to place on the window above our front door, to create a dialogue with the window piece at U.T.L.D. (OUFTI), I decided to split the O, which already consisted of two different parts. This is how the brackets came about. They are commonly used to isolate a piece of text or data from its surroundings. Seeing them separated, in their isolated form, without actually enclosing anything, they reminded me of an eggshell or some kind of vessel. By placing the T in the middle, a primitive, stylized image of a face was somehow formed. Viewed upside down one might recognize a simplified shape of a butt.

T (disambiguation)

RS, YVdW, LD

26.10.24 Beursschouwburg, Brussels 31.01.25 De Cinema, Antwerp 10.03.25 Art Cinema OFFoff, Ghent 30.04.25 Filmhuis / Kunsthal Mechelen

stone or waterfall a film by Chloé Op de Beeck with Marita Schwanke and myself

portraits of my dinosaur neighbors

documenting the aquatic birds I'm surrounded by since living by the canal

cormorant, coot, mallard, heron, grebe, moorhen, penguin, gull, stork

pen, crayon, colored pencil on mango paper 2024 (ongoing)

OUFTI

At the invitation of Yorick Van de Walle and Els Dillen to make something for the front window of their new home/studio/space (U.T.L.D.), I proposed a simple design with colored pencil on a sheet of tracing paper. Five letters: OUFTI.

Yorick then converted my drawing into vectors. We enlarged them and painted them on the window together.

Oufti! is the brand name of a snack consisting of frozen banana slices covered in chocolate. You can buy them at the cinema in a small elongated cardboard box. Yorick and Els grew up with it. I had never heard of it until we started going to the movies together. (Since Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, "Oufti! Banane" has been an integral part of my sensory register.)

Oufti is a typical French-speaking Belgian word that originated in Liège. In glossaries it is described as a shout of surprise or admiration. It is therefore translated into Dutch as 'wauw', but the Flemish 'amai' comes closer to its true meaning. Like 'amai', 'oufti' can also express disappointment and even dismay.

Visitors could take a printed letter (A4) home with them. This way, OUFTI could expand. When the letters come together in a different order they may generate new meanings.

Rien Schellemans Yorick Van de Walle 2024

Where you see sand here, imagine water. You dive in. You can’t reach the bottom. - You “dive” in? Yes, it’s called swimming. - I don’t... I don’t believe you.

revisiting De Pompoenberg / Dune gij zen rien, 2018 - 2020

Trickery

hebben en zijn gij zen rien

with Gijs Waterschoot for FRED&FERRY GALLERY 2021

some details of 24 FRAMES at LR.RG #3 with Sven Boel, Karina Beumer, Filip Collin, Kristien Dirkx and myself 20-21.10.2023

When I was invited to participate in this group exhibition I wanted to respond to the place, to the moment. Creating something that moves and flows when people come together.

I had 24 glasses printed with images that I made during the meeting with organizers-artists-friends Lore Van Roelen and Robert Soroko in their exhibition space in Deurne and my bike ride along the water back home. (Since the summer of 2023 I have been living by the canal in the city of Mechelen. I became interested in how places are connected by rivers and waterways so I started to explore them by bicycle. The image below, photographed in my studio, was used for the invitation to the exhibition.)

"I've often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it's inside a frame." - Abbas Kiarostami

exokino with Lynn Depreeuw

first shown at Etceterrestrials at SECONDroom Antwerpen, 2023

Iguanodon Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 124 Ma 2023

with Yorick Van de Walle

a little documentation of the Iguanodon's fossil femur exposure at Erfgoeddag Mechelen with T.I.C.O. (Tijdelijke Invulling Cel Ongewervelden), 2023

thanks to RADAR Mechelen, Sarah Hendrickx and Koen Kwanten, Polien Boons, Els Dillen, Yorick Van de Walle, Emma Van Roey, Willem Vermeersch, Gustave Lavalette, Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen - Muséum des Sciences naturelles, Academie Mechelen, Erfgoeddag, FARO. Vlaams steunpunt voor cultureel erfgoed, neighbors and visitors

dogs: Julia, Shady

monument: Pierre Joseph Van Beneden (Mechelen, December 19, 1809 - Leuven, January 8, 1894), Belgian paleontologist and zoologist

drawing and story: Yorick Van de Walle

Formaties series and Pennenmuseum as part of 'de keuzes van Rien Schellemans & Gijs Waterschoot' at mariondecannière, 2020 installation views by Tomas Uyttendaele

Yankee from Formaties series with Gijs Waterschoot private collection Kris Van Dessel, 2020 photo Kris Van Dessel

Pterosaur portraits transferred on 'mango paper', the paper thin, semi-transparent membrane that sits around the seed of a mango. These small drawings were shown in 2020 at mariondecannière art space in Antwerp as part of my first solo exhibition together with Gijs Waterschoot. Happy to see these weirdos again, accidentally entering into dialogue with the work of Enzo Mari (44 valutazioni, 1976, Perché una mostra di falci?, 1986) and an article on marxism in De Witte Raaf.

Pterosaurs were a group of flying reptiles that evolved over 220 million years ago in the Triassic and became extinct 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous. They were the first vertebrates to take to the air. They did so on wings of skin stretched between their bodies and extraordinarily-elongated fourth fingers. More than 200 pterosaur species have been described, including the largest flying animals ever to have lived. True winged dragons.

As contribution to a group exhibition I had 24 glasses printed with images that I made during a visit of the exhibition space and my bike ride along the water back home.

One of the glasses had an image of my left hand holding a glass of water. My hand in that image had some notes written on it. I photographed that particular glass while holding it with my right hand. I then had a glass printed with that image. I presented it as a vase for a plant cutting in a bottle cage attached to the door frame.

notes: LR.RG WE ARE ROOTED BUT WE FLOW (referring to CONTOUR Biennial of Moving Images 2023)

Untitled (verrekijker ook binoculars t(w)o(o)), 2019 terracotta, rope, "...", ..., 17 x 7 x 17 cm

I had been working with Gijs Waterschoot for two years at the time I made this sculpture. Gijs had a good pair of binoculars in the studio, which we used in our first exhibition as a duo in 2017. The way we shared this viewing device marked the beginning of a good friendship and (literally) expanded my view on images, sculpture, installation, exhibitions and artistic practice in general. (link to video)

Now I wanted one for myself too. I often felt a need to imitate or to copy, to "double". And that is what I did here. No better way to copy than to model the thing in clay - the beginning of everything. I presented the piece opposite Gijs' original binoculars at our first solo (duo) exhibition at the gallery of the late Marion De Cannière in 2020.

Later that year, when we were locked down by the pandemic I activated the ceramic binoculars in a video that attempted to capture a conversation from a social distance with a friend living in Antwerp. I liked how it blended in with the surroundings, how it resembled bricks and roof tiles. In the distance we see fellow artist Robert Soroko waving yellow trousers.

Looking at what is far away from up close, and vice versa remains an important aspect of my work to this day.

Here's a video portrait of my dearest, most fluffy friend enjoying a crunchy meal. (sound on)

LILLI for studio witloof (2021)

Slakkenberg

was part of the group exhibition B-SIDES & RARITIES at FRED&FERRY GALLERY 8.04 - 29.04.2023

Rien Schellemans & Gijs Waterschoot gij zen rien

with Stephen Jay Gould's Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, 1989

photo print, wood, glass, snail shells, wild rabbit droppings 61 x 91 x 4 cm, position variable

installation views by @shivadas.be & Chloé Op de Beeck exhibition guide by Hanna

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs