Performalist self-portraiture

“The images were taken by Rudy Rijling in Amsterdam, an (at that time) older than me erotic photographer of young men whose ad I found in the back of a contact magazine. I had just gotten back from Greece with De Ateliers on a residency trip and because of the weather difference I had a very heavy red rash on the insides of my thighs. Luckily on black and white film this does not really show up. I had wanted to make this wallpaper in 1997 for my first exhibit ever at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam but one of the curators, Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen (a gay man himself) advised 23 year old me against it, saying I would become known as the ‘guy with the erect penis’. Carolee Schneemann told me never to be ashamed of pleasure and how the body shows it. So I was confused, but listened to him and then in 2007, ten years later, at a solo exhibit in Munich at Lothringer 13, finally had the opportunity to have the wallpaper made. I had tried to become a gay porno model, but only half-heartedly. I went back to Rudy later to ask for the negatives which he gave me, we also had sex a few times at some point. It’s one of the first times I realized that much older men were attractive to me…There were 8 strips of wallpaper and they were never glued, they exist as unique objects. I have to add and I don’t really like to, it gives me no great pleasure, that part of the idea of the wallpaper came from Andy Warhol’s Cow series of wallpaper and other series of his. But there could have been other influences this was not an exclusive influence.” – SMW.

“These are indeed my earliest works that I have documents of. I had some even earlier works that are with my parents in Topeka, Kansas. A lot of this digitized work is there too. It’s mainly from the period at Pratt Institute, also when Carolee Schneemann was my teacher. It was a super hard period, but out of it came this for me diamond like work. Some of these bleed into time at the Rietveld Academie and De Ateliers in the very first four months I was there and into 1995. I still count these works as being very foundational to what I do and who I am. When I sell from this period the work is more expensive than work I am making now.” – SMW.

“These are indeed my earliest works that I have documents of. I had some even earlier works that are with my parents in Topeka, Kansas. A lot of this digitized work is there too. It’s mainly from the period at Pratt Institute, also when Carolee Schneemann was my teacher. It was a super hard period, but out of it came this for me diamond like work. Some of these bleed into time at the Rietveld Academie and De Ateliers in the very first four months I was there and into 1995. I still count these works as being very foundational to what I do and who I am. When I sell from this period the work is more expensive than work I am making now.” – SMW.

“These are indeed my earliest works that I have documents of. I had some even earlier works that are with my parents in Topeka, Kansas. A lot of this digitized work is there too. It’s mainly from the period at Pratt Institute, also when Carolee Schneemann was my teacher. It was a super hard period, but out of it came this for me diamond like work. Some of these bleed into time at the Rietveld Academie and De Ateliers in the very first four months I was there and into 1995. I still count these works as being very foundational to what I do and who I am. When I sell from this period the work is more expensive than work I am making now.” – SMW.

“These are indeed my earliest works that I have documents of. I had some even earlier works that are with my parents in Topeka, Kansas. A lot of this digitized work is there too. It’s mainly from the period at Pratt Institute, also when Carolee Schneemann was my teacher. It was a super hard period, but out of it came this for me diamond like work. Some of these bleed into time at the Rietveld Academie and De Ateliers in the very first four months I was there and into 1995. I still count these works as being very foundational to what I do and who I am. When I sell from this period the work is more expensive than work I am making now.” – SMW.

From 27. April (WeTransfer notes): “The other 11 images are from 2009 as well. They were taken in Vienna and are a performance with artist Johanna Braun where I am both art historian and nude, and Johanna and I perform together discussing her work. This was based on a 1969 work by Carolee Schneemann in London called ‘Naked Action Lecture’ where she was art historian of her own work in a slide show and got naked at a certain point to see if she could keep her authority.” – SMW.

9 april 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “Okay, here are some of the most important works I’ve ever made: ‘Elke & Sands: Equalities, Equivalences’ from 2002 in a series of images taken by Robin in an old flat of ours in my studio there. It’s a wonder these ever were taken and I still love them.” – SMW.

9 april 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “Okay, here are some of the most important works I’ve ever made: ‘Elke & Sands: Equalities, Equivalences’ from 2002 in a series of images taken by Robin in an old flat of ours in my studio there. It’s a wonder these ever were taken and I still love them.” – SMW.