THE PRESENT IS THE RESULT OF THE PAST Van 3 SEPTEMBER - 15 OKTOBER 2011
John Blake
Beste vrienden en belangstellenden Zaterdag 3 september  17 - 19 uur opent  in LOCUS SOLUS, Pourbusstraat 14, Antwerpen  de zesde tentoonstelling in de reeks THE PRESENT IS THE RESULT OF THE PAST met een speciaal voor de ruimte ontworpen (site specific) overzicht van de belangrijkste momenten van de jaren zestig tot heden uit de ontwikkeling van JOHN BLAKE. De schrijver Peter Mason zal een inleiding houden. De tentoonstelling blijft te bezichtigen  tot 15 oktober op vrijdag en zaterdagen 14 - 18 uur franck gribling organisator.
John Blake was born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, in 1945. He studied painting at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and at Yale University (Norfolk Program) receiving his BFA in 1967. He continued his studies in London at the Royal College of Art (MA/RCA,1969). Since that time he has remained living and working primarily in Europe, first based in London then, since the mid-80s, in the Netherlands. His mixed-media work since the late sixties has encompassed site-related installations, photo-constructions, drawing and sculpture, dia-projections and films, as well as permanently sited, commissioned works in recent years. His work has been represented in various group shows internationally, and solo exhibitions and projects have included, among others: Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1971, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford UK, 1973, PS1 (Institute for Art & Urban Resources) NYC, 1977, ICA (Institute for Contemporary Arts), London, 1980, de Vleeshal, Middelburg NL, 1983, de Appel, Amsterdam NL, 1986, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw PL, 1993, Kunstbunker Tumulka, Munich D, 1996, etc. He has recently completed a new public work —DE HALS ‘kunsthalte’ / RET— for the ‘museum quarter’ in Rotterdam, as well as a second collaboration with Tangram Architekten, his (multiple) contributions integrated into their DUKAAT project, a large residential and shopping complex in Osdorp, Amsterdam. At present he is collaborating with the author & cultural anthropologist Peter Mason (Deconstructing America: Representations of the Other, RKP, 1990, Infelicities: Representations of the Exotic, JHU, 1998, etc) on a publication to be titled S-P-I-N-E, representing their work’s production as individual paths containing parallel directions, to be published this forthcoming year. Other books on John Blake’s works have included: Ich Oczy; 600 Eyes for Krzysztofory (1987), RIVER (1991), GUARD / Camiel van Winkle (1991), Wtedy i Teraz: works in Poland 1980-1994 / Anna Maria Potocka (1996), BUNKER / Peter Mason (1996), & DE HALS / Lieven de Cauter (2000). In recent years his work has featured in exhibitions in London (2009, 2010), in Poland (2008, 2009) as well as in Holland (2008, 2009). This year a small, retrospective overview of works (1970-2010) will be presented at Locus Solus in Antwerpen, a City Thoughts Project directed by Franck Gribling, and Blake’s first exhibition in Belgium.
Affiche John blake,Locus Solus,2011(ontw.gribling)   Fall,2011, ontwerp installatie Locus Solus,antwerpen Spanning all those years ( after its first execution in Croydon college of Art in 1970) I consider "Fall" to be a signature work.   speakers corner, 1982,2x125x85 cm   Unttled(Plate work1987,136x182 cm)   1 + 0 ,Study for HCAK Installation 1989   bone Boxes, 1993-94,40x168x40 This work commermorates a common denominator in my general practice, metaphoriclly invading the consciousness of its viewer; a Beckett-like confrontation: the body's representation, the means to achieve their illumination, and the box   Study Ideal Place,1994 As an answer to a demand by the HCAK to create an ideal space(The Hague): "A room fitting in itself,mirroring itself,a narcissistic architecture, impervious to outside invasion,a Machiavellian conceit wich relativised the hypothetised thema."   Circle + dot, 8 x 56 x76, 2002 Referring to words by Watts in Samuel Beckett"s novel of the same name, as he contemplates, as someone who knew nothing about painting. a picture of a circle and a dot, wondering what the artist intended to represent.   Skull boxes,(blue skull),2002, 92 x 60 x 17 cm the collection of Skull Boxes, a Memento Mori/Reliquerie/Vanitas formulation is addressed here to the current , ubiquitous media-market, which gives it a contemporary "twang"or : tinge', it is certainly tainted. Warhol has his influence here; in my estimation he created the last great skulls. My photo-image was dormant for ages, shot at he Josephinum Mesdical collection in Vienna, 20 or so years before. then I thought , it was exactly its stale banality, which made a challenge to resuscitate."