Joep van Lieshout*, Berend Strik*, Philip Akkerman, Henri Jacobs 1989

Text by Camiel van Winkel
40 pages, fully illustrated
Designed by Stereo Graphics New York
Printed by the Tilton Gallery New York
edition of 2000

To invision your ultimate spatial confinement: a private booth for draining bodily fluids.

A room for one to retreat, to be closed and locked from the inside. Like a microcosmic allusion its four corners, all withing arm's reach, reflect the four quarters of the compass. This booth shelters private projections as well as the dissolving of standardized oppositions.

Sometimes new standards will replace the earlier, smoother ones.
Sometimes a chain of variations and mutations is likely to obfuscate any standard. Positions are endlessly replayed in a choreography of compulsive boredom. The urge to drop the jack is all embracing. Only temporary shifts of priorities can be allowed. Reluctant to separate from their droppings, the Dutch built a small platform into their lavatory bowls, to allow for visual inspection -- and phased goodbye.

* Werk van Joep van Lieshout en Berend Strik is te zien tot 4 maart 2012 in Museum de Paviljoens in de tentoonstelling De Nederlandse Identiteit? Kracht van heden.