0040
02-06-1994
WAITING FOR THE BUS
Walter Bartelings
Artist

Walter Bartelings is preoccupied with space and with moving in space. He has endeavoured to create a monumental manuscript. This is in keeping with the rest of his work, which is often so large that you can walk on or in it. While he was making the spatial manuscript, a memory of a visit to Czechoslovakia came back to him: impressed by the monumental architecture, he stood for hours waiting at a bus station. He associates the opening in the manuscript with, among other things, the metro stations in the Bijlmer, which are also striking because of their superhuman dimensions. The deliberate creation of imperfection and irregularity is a recurring theme in his work. The use of wood, weathered by the elements, is characteristic of this:

‘Because every piece of wood changes colour, you can play with the meaning.’
-WB