2022
Exhibition: in het Licht, groupshow in Krona Museum for religious Art Uden(NL).
Installation; Insulation sheets, electronics, ventilator. Approx. 125 x 175 x 15cm.
Fans slowly push air into the mattresss and then let it flow out again, this make it seem to breathe slowly with soft crackling sounds.
Tag: yellow
Borderline
2021
Without Title, Group-show, In pairs, Kunsthaus Troisdorf (DE).
Group-show with 4 Artist-couples from Germany, the Netherlands and Switserland.
Each couple presenting work which is a result of working in pairs.
Two objects, MDF, thermos bottles, metall. Approx 2x2x2m each.
Together with Sonja Karle.
Bracelet
1983
Object: Ice. Approx. 7cm diameter.
A melting piece of jewelry.
Fish
1988
Object: Electric wire, clinical thermometer. Approx. 1 x 6 x 15cm.
Buffet
1990
Sculpture: wood, glass, soap. Approx. 240 x 400 x 100cm. (model: 30 x 50 x 12,5cm.)
Buffet is a sort of huge showcase-like sculpture with an open space in the middle. There isn’t any entry and climbing over the glass seems dangerous. The soap gives the geometrical outside a soft touch; The human-size curves of the table-top and glass seem naturally formed.
Guillotine for a mammoth
1991
Exhibition: Geweld, Paraplufabriek Nijmegen(NL).
Sculpture: Concrete, steel (model: wood, steel, paint). Approx. 14 x 10 x 6meter (model 50 x 30 x 20cm).
A monument for the animal that symbolizes all species that died out after the last ice age.
Frost
1991
Object: Thermos, shovel stick. Approx. 100cm high.
The nonfunctional combination of a vulnerable bottle placed on a shovel tick which is meant to withstand considerable force, is a contradiction in itself.
The tears of Miss Holland
1993
Exhibition: Miss Holland (private home) Amsterdam (NL).
Installation: Soap on expanding foam. Approx. 360 x 120 x 70 cm.
A sperm-whale made of soap is placed among wealth dating back to the whaling age; wall size paintings, chandeliers, a herringbone bond carpet and an opulent owner. It looks like being stranded in the back of this monumental building in Amsterdam.
Nest box
1995
Object: plaster, kettle-whistles, diaphragm, some simple engineering. Approx. 12 x 12 x 48cm.
Lighter
1997
Exhibition: complementary, Hengelo (NL), Gemünd (DE, ’13)
An exhibition with the theme 1 kg of orange and 1 kg of blue.
Sculpture: Wax, matches, paint. Each approx. 35 x 12x 16cm.
These wooden shoes are fire.
Flies
1999
Exhibition: Summerlaboratory, ArToll, Bedburg-Hau (DE)
Installation: Origami Airplanes between the double window-frames like dead flies. Size Variable.
Entry
1999
Exhibition: Summerlaboratory, ArToll, Bedburg-Hau (DE)
Installation: Dandelions under the grating in front of the main-entrance-door. Size Variable.
Doomed to be trampled upon.
Romeo & Julia
2000
Exhibition: Summerlaboratory, Artoll, Bedburg-Hau (DE), Amsterdam (NL, ’04).
Installation 1: Romeo: Wood, Plastic, pipe-insulation. Approx. 200 x 110 x 70cm.
Installation 2: Julia: Toilet, ventilator, ir switch, trash bin, safety blanket. Size variable.
Mankind
2001
Exhibition: Mankind from Akteins at the University Cologne (DE).
Installation: Neoprene, wood, foam rubber, styropor.
(4x) approx. 65 x 50 x 35cm.
Stools of diving-suit material, in the shape of numbers, placed in a pathological institute, are surrounded by numbered hall stands, numbered students and numbered preparations preserved in formaldehyde.
Corridor / Overflow
2002
Exhibition: visiting the neighbours, Tabitha, Amsterdam (NL).
Concept/curated/organization together with Guda Koster.
Installation: Wood, pieces of carpet. Approx. 230 x 160 x 218cm.
In front of a window at the end of a corridor in a care centre, is a colorful pile/mountain/staircase made of many layers of carpet.
Mould / Foolish
2003
Exhibition: Numbers only at Arti, Amsterdam (NL), Cologne (DE, ’04), Bedburg-Hau (DE, ’04),
Sculpture: Chicken egg-shells glued together. Approx. 50 x 40 x 45cm.
The 8th Continent
2003
Exhibition: Come Home (Kommen sie nach Hause), Exhibition at private homes in Cologne, Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, (’03-’04).
Object: Three different sorts of cat litter, glued together. Approx. 10 x 15 x 2cm.
Nest
2004
Exhibition: New Members, Arti, Amsterdam (NL), Cologne (DE, ’04), Educational Art-DVD for Dutch schools (NL, ’07)
Object: Chips forks. Approx. 30x30x25 cm.
Icecap
2004
Project: Turmstipendium/Grant, Watertower Geldern (DE).
First proposal: Put an icecap on top of the roof. The high cost of this project due to the immense installation and energy input needed, made it impossible to realize.
WaterLand
2004
Proposal for a competition by the occasion of creating the new subway in Amsterdam (NL), InNL booklet (’11).
Sculpture: Concrete tiles chained together and floating on Styrofoam, the lampposts also float and sway in the waves. Planned near the former site of the Amsterdam gallow-island. Approx. 1800 x 1000 x 700cm.
EXIT
2005
Exhibition: Tulips from Kabul, Dogtroep in fortress Ruigenhoek (NL).
An installatin project with guided tours in an old fortress near Utrecht with and about asylum seekers.
Sculpture: Wood, hourglass, safety hammer. Approx. 21 x 21 x 5cm.
Instant
2005
Exhibition: Pumpingstation Wachtendonk (DE), Utrecht (NL) (’05), Eitorf (DE) (’13).
Sculpture: Pedestal, glass, chicken-eggs, spy-lenses. Approx. 140 x 30 x 30 with pedestal.
A white pedestal with two chicken-eggs on felt under glass. The two small spy-lenses “look” towards the outside.
Hostess
2006
Exhibition: pumping station Wachtendonk (DE), Eitorf (DE, ’13).
Show in a former water pumping station. Autumn: freezing cold.
Sculpture: Socks, paper dispenser. Approx. 60 x 45 x 38cm.
A sock-dispenser for warm feet.
Fall-fantasy
2013
Part of a Videoinstallation showing videoworks of ca. 25 different artists, former Organfactory Karslruhe (DE). Video-loop 2min 56sec HD.
On the left side of the screen a suitcase is first packed and then unpacked, somehow synchronised with the wind turning the leaves of a fashion magazine on the right side of the screen.
Tempio
2013
Residency/Grant at the “Artist village” Schöppingen (DE).
Proposal for a pavilion, presented in a booklet. Pavilion: sand, concrete, metal, chains, benches, light.
Approx. 17,5×17,5×7 m.
The only way to reach this pavilion is through the loose sand that encircles it. In order to make it possible for each visitor to feel to be the first one ever to enter, everyone is invited to leave the pavilion without leaving any traces. The traces can be erased by moving around the arms with the chains (which hang on the sand-surface).
Standing
2014
Group-show: Hanging Around, Art-Library Amsterdam (East)(NL).
Video-installation: A monitor hanging in a pendulum. Video-loop 3 min 43 sec HD, acrylic globe, metal, electronics, solenoids. Approx. 60 x 350(deflection) x 650cm.
A Pendulum is swinging. The suspended weight is a transparent globe with a monitor in it, showing two naked feet standing on a lined and numbered floor. The recording shows the feet while rotating around them. The two movements; the camera rotating around the feet and the swinging of the pendulum, interact.
Sweepheart
2014
Residency with group-show: Control, ArToll, Bedburg Hau (DE).
Video-installation: Video-loop 9 min 52 sec HD, player, projector, white foam board (approx. 60×80 cm), black cloth, stepper-motor, electronics.
A hanging foot is recorded https://matthijs-muller.eu/wp-admin/post.php?post=370&action=edit&lang=enfrom underneath. You see the trees around it, losing their leaves. Looking closer you can see the small pulsating movements from the blood pumped through the veins. You can see the heartbeat.
The white projection-screen rotates in steps, approximately every second. A couple of steps clockwise, a couple of steps counterclockwise; alternating in direction. The two movements interact silently.
Shaken
2014
Group-show: Kunstpunkte, at the old wool-factory in Eitorf (DE).
Object: chicken egg, door-handles. Approx: 20 x 20 x 4cm.
Take off
2016
Proposal (not selected) for a landart group-show, Sancy (FR).
Sculpture: Wood, metal. Approx. 470 x 290 x 560cm.
A dingy (entirely made of wood) floats in a lake. Where normally the outboard-motor is mounted, a semicircle is cut-out. Two poles, connected with a beam on top, rise above this. Underneath this beam is a metal plate, its slanted bottom-side reminds of a guillotine.
The outline of a tree is cut out of the plate.
Noose
2014
Group-show: Kunstpunkte, at the old wool-factory in Eitorf (DE), Geldern (DE, 2022).
Object: Festoons. Approx: 5 meter length (variable).
Ich bin (I am)
2017
Group-show: Mitwelt42103, in and around the new-Art-centre-Wuppertal (DE).
A group project about the tension between privacy and public matter.
Installation: Billboard in public space; photoprint, wood. Approx. 240×420 cm (Print).
The image used for Ich bin is a manipulated still from an execution-video send into the world by ISIS.
Both killer and beheaded are blurred slightly. The head of the victim/hostage is cut out so from behind you can put your head through the board and become part of the image.
Scattered over the picture, the shape of the oval cut-out is repeated (not cut out) as a graphical element.
The position of the persons, the color of their clothes and their strong outlines against a blue sky and desert, keep the image recognizable, certainly on a second look.
At the rear-side of the billboard, next to the oval opening, hangs a manual. It states the title of the work and the theme of the exhibition and invites people to stick their head through the billboard, make a picture of it and upload it to the website of the project (through a QR-code) and become part of the show. Only one person did this (with a dog in the opening). Many people did make the picture though, but didn’t want it to become public. Some recognized the source of the image only when they saw the image on the small screen of their phone/camera, with themselves in it.
Several threatening protests were sent to the local government, demanding the work to be removed immediately. As planned, after four weeks I removed the piece, unscathed and without any graffiti.
Water
2018
Group-show: Water from the company, shopwindows, Den Helder (NL).
Due to its location, for centuries the city of Den Helder used to be the main port of Dutch military. But after the end of the cold war, the military moved out.
The number of inhabitants shrunk notably. Poverty and unemployment became a common problem. Therefore the city centre has many empty shops and is about to be reorganized.
Installation: Waterbottle, water, wood, electronics, motor, video-loop 2min57sec HD, player, monitor.
A waterbottle in the size you normally don’t have at home is laying on a plate on the top of a triangular shaped sort of pedestal.
The pedestal contains a mechanism that makes the bottle roll smoothly: cap up-bottom-up, making the water move constantly in the bottle in a wave from left to right, and back.
At some distance a monitor shows a video of an image of a mountainous landscape. A finger pushes the image around, from left to right and back, more or less in synch with the bottle.
Now and again
2019
Group-show: Self is the other, Kulturwerkstatt Kircheib (DE).
Video-Installation: video-loop 19min56sec HD, player, projector, electronics, servo-motor, mirror, tripods.
Ab und zu is a projection of the head of a man (with a 30 day’s beard, eyes closed) on the upper side of the wall. Watching closely suddenly you notice the eyes blinking every now and then. Then randomly and completely unexpected the head seems to fall down, eyes wide open and accompanied by an unpleasant sound (created by the fast-moving servomotor). For a moment the head remains just above the floor, shaved. Then, much slower the head moves up again, eyes closed, the beard growing again.