Thought drawings

Thought Drawings and Philosophical Sketches are prominent typologies in the world of Sands’ practice. While maybe better known for his body-based performance works – which, I suppose, are all PERFORMALIST SELF-PORTRAITS in one way or another – Sands also has a long-standing mark-making practice that is apparent in his stacks and rolls and Albert Heijn bags and now archival boxes full of drawings and sketches on A4 paper and drawing paper and backs of drawing pads and specialty papers and rolls of paper and sometimes even a textile (though the TEXTILE PAINTINGS remain their own separate typology). The Working 2000 grouping has around 350 sketches; the Rolled Paintings probably around 150 (though we only ever catalogued 20); the Computer Drawings around 58; and the Working 2010s, well, we’re not sure as we had to stop at around 65 but it’s likely closer to 200. Then there’s the horse drawings – thousands of them – which we never got to, but which live through the META-ARCHIVE PROCESS IMAGES and across social media. It’s a lot to take in, trust me, I know. And that’s part of it. A single drawing or sketch might be interesting or funny or compositionally seductive but taken in their accumulation – and sometimes in their repetition – they become something else. They form densely woven theoretical tracts unfolding in painterly space.

The sketches are layered, messy, chaotic and often, as Sands says, “irritatingly large” for what they are. They mischievously confuse the terms of what we understand value to be. The drawings are singular statements, sometimes coming in a pair that sits in Marx’s chiasmus, sometimes tracking herstories, sometimes examining truisms and falsehoods, and always connected to LABOR. All are ‘language as figuration,’ breaking apart wrought boundaries between the acting body and thinking body, the gestures of the hand and of the brain, the feeling and the language, the sex and the cerebral. Or, perhaps better put, they make such boundaries fluid. All open onto a lovingly idiosyncratic world-making systems, as Amalia described: ‘gay gay gay’ as a world structure and a stuttering prophetic chant. IS THIS GOOD FOR ANUS?

When no one else was looking, the drawings and sketches became what Radna coined a ‘DITZCOURSE’ of their own. – MH.

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  • Catalog No.
  • 01778-2014-PsW2010s-ARestlessIntelligence
  • Title
  • A Restless Intelligence
  • Dimensions
  • 50 x 65
  • Materials
  • Pencil, permanent marker and acrylic paint on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical

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  • Catalog No.
  • 02158-1995/1998-TwLd-ISaid
  • Title
  • I said
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Scented marker on A4 stationary
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

Like the horse drawings, the letterhead drawings are not always on letterhead, but share amongst them use of the handwritten text.

  • Reflection Notes

“I printed this stationary to use for my business, but never really used it for that. I used it to start making drawings on. My Mom had sent me fruit scented markers with animals printed on them, which I had used in my childhood. I used these to make the drawings, declarative statements to find my way.” – SMW.

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  • Catalog No.
  • 02167-1995/1998-TwLd-IAm
  • Title
  • I am
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Scented marker on A4 stationary
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

Like the horse drawings, the letterhead drawings are not always on letterhead, but share amongst them use of the handwritten text.

  • Reflection Notes

“I printed this stationary to use for my business, but never really used it for that. I used it to start making drawings on. My Mom had sent me fruit scented markers with animals printed on them, which I had used in my childhood. I used these to make the drawings, declarative statements to find my way.” – SMW.

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Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02330-c2015-TwA4-ThingsAndPeople
  • Title
  • Things and people
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Acrylic paint on pages of Gai Pied magazine
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

The pages are yellowed and cracked with age. Dutch Curator Erik Hagoort gave SMW a few huge boxes of these French gay liberation magazines from the 80s, and SMW intuitively started painting on them. There are many more than those listed in the archive.

  • Reflection Notes

“I had to throw away a lot of these, there were also Dutch gay liberation magazines in the boxes Erik Hagoort gave me, called ‘De Verkeerde Krant’ or so, (‘van de verkeerde kant’ was a Dutch saying for a queer person) but due to storage I could not keep everything as a resource to use. There are hundreds of these painted drawings, and they get quite a good response. Paul Thek = newspaper paintings, Karen Finley = same as Paul Thek, Erik Hagoort is the partner of Dutch artist Albert van Westing and AA Bronson showed a fondness for the drawings.” – SMW.

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Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 01466-2015-PsW2010s-WasThatIntentional?
  • Title
  • Was That Intentional?
  • Dimensions
  • 43 x 60
  • Materials
  • Acrylic paint and gouache on exhibition poster
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

Verso: exhibition poster from ‘Does Not Equal’ at W139 (design by Karoline Swiezynski). SMW work in the exhibition: Carolee Schneemann Methodology: My Body for Women/ Paintings With the Sound of Their Own Making/Carolee Schneemann as a Painter/Dedicated to Robin Wassink-Murray + Miss Lady Betsie Bubble + WASSINQUE INC. Our Little Feminist Unit.

  • Reflection Notes

“It was such an uncomfortable experience. It was 9 o’clock in the morning and no one wanted to be photographed. The photographer started crying.” – SMW.

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  • Catalog No.
  • 00267-c2001-PsW2000-LOSTIT.
  • Title
  • LOST IT
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Poster marker and pen on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical

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  • Catalog No.
  • 00401-2000-PsW2000-DONTLOOK
  • Title
  • DON'T LOOK
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Poster marker on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Reflection Notes

“All this archiving… I think it is also a form of self-care.” – SMW.

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  • Catalog No.
  • 00445-2000/2001-TwHd-AmIUsingFeminism?
  • Title
  • Am I Using Feminism?
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Poster marker and pen on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical

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Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 00008-2011-TwRp-DisadvantageIsAnIntellectual…
  • Title
  • Disadvantage is an Intellectual Position
  • Dimensions
  • 150 x 69
  • Materials
  • Acrylic on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

In response to the Linda Nochlin 1971 essay ‘Why are there no great women artists’.

  • Reflection Notes

Email exchange – 22.09.20. “I am in such an art world bubble sometimes, even feminist art world bubble, that it is still fairly new and challenging to answer questions about my positioning in the general society at large in a materialist feminist sense.” – SMW.

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Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02122-c2014-TwCd-AsCloseAs
  • Title
  • As Close As
  • Dimensions
  • Variable
  • Materials
  • Digital word document file
  • Object Location
  • Digital
  • Technical Notes

Some of the computer drawings have been printed and other have not. All could be printed at any scale in any material upon request.

  • Reflection Notes

“An elegant and typically strange solution for making work, which I was very proud of. I just type in a word document and print on cheap A4 printer paper. ‘Pure text, message as image’.” – SMW.

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Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02152-1995/1998-TwLd-BestInBed
  • Title
  • Best in bed
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Spacented marker on A4 stationary
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

Like the horse drawings, the letterhead drawings are not always on letterhead, but share amongst them use of the handwritten text.

  • Reflection Notes

“I printed this stationary to use for my business, but never really used it for that. I used it to start making drawings on. My Mom had sent me fruit scented markers with animals printed on them, which I had used in my childhood. I used these to make the drawings, declarative statements to find my way.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02247-c2015-TwA4-ArchiveArchiveArchive
  • Title
  • Archive Archive Archive
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Acrylic paint on pages of Gai Pied magazine
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

The pages are yellowed and cracked with age. Dutch Curator Erik Hagoort gave SMW a few huge boxes of these French gay liberation magazines from the 80s, and SMW intuitively started painting on them. There are many more than those listed in the archive.

  • Reflection Notes

“I had to throw away a lot of these, there were also Dutch gay liberation magazines in the boxes Erik Hagoort gave me, called ‘De Verkeerde Krant’ or so, (‘van de verkeerde kant’ was a Dutch saying for a queer person) but due to storage I could not keep everything as a resource to use. There are hundreds of these painted drawings, and they get quite a good response. Paul Thek = newspaper paintings, Karen Finley = same as Paul Thek, Erik Hagoort is the partner of Dutch artist Albert van Westing and AA Bronson showed a fondness for the drawings.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02217-c2015-TwA4-AboutTheGesture
  • Title
  • About the gesture
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Acrylic paint on pages of Gai Pied magazine
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

The pages are yellowed and cracked with age. Dutch Curator Erik Hagoort gave SMW a few huge boxes of these French gay liberation magazines from the 80s, and SMW intuitively started painting on them. There are many more than those listed in the archive.

  • Reflection Notes

“I had to throw away a lot of these, there were also Dutch gay liberation magazines in the boxes Erik Hagoort gave me, called ‘De Verkeerde Krant’ or so, (‘van de verkeerde kant’ was a Dutch saying for a queer person) but due to storage I could not keep everything as a resource to use. There are hundreds of these painted drawings, and they get quite a good response. Paul Thek = newspaper paintings, Karen Finley = same as Paul Thek, Erik Hagoort is the partner of Dutch artist Albert van Westing and AA Bronson showed a fondness for the drawings.” – SMW.

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Listings connecting to the keyword “Thought drawings” (623)

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02131-c2014-TwCd-IGive
  • Title
  • I Give
  • Dimensions
  • Variable
  • Materials
  • Dkrugigital word document file
  • Object Location
  • Digital
  • Technical Notes

Some of the computer drawings have been printed and other have not. All could be printed at any scale in any material upon request.

  • Reflection Notes

“An elegant and typically strange solution for making work, which I was very proud of. I just type in a word document and print on cheap A4 printer paper. ‘Pure text, message as image’.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02164-1995/1998-TwLd-EveryDownTime
  • Title
  • Every down time
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Scented marker on A4 stationary
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

Like the horse drawings, the letterhead drawings are not always on letterhead, but share amongst them use of the handwritten text.

  • Reflection Notes

“I printed this stationary to use for my business, but never really used it for that. I used it to start making drawings on. My Mom had sent me fruit scented markers with animals printed on them, which I had used in my childhood. I used these to make the drawings, declarative statements to find my way.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02196-1995/1998-TwLd-YouveCome
  • Title
  • You've come
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Scented marker on A4 stationary
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

Like the horse drawings, the letterhead drawings are not always on letterhead, but share amongst them use of the handwritten text.

  • Reflection Notes

“I printed this stationary to use for my business, but never really used it for that. I used it to start making drawings on. My Mom had sent me fruit scented markers with animals printed on them, which I had used in my childhood. I used these to make the drawings, declarative statements to find my way.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02228-c2015-TwA4-Incentive
  • Title
  • Incentive
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Acrylic paint on pages of Gai Pied magazine
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

The pages are yellowed and cracked with age. Dutch Curator Erik Hagoort gave SMW a few huge boxes of these French gay liberation magazines from the 80s, and SMW intuitively started painting on them. There are many more than those listed in the archive.

  • Reflection Notes

“I had to throw away a lot of these, there were also Dutch gay liberation magazines in the boxes Erik Hagoort gave me, called ‘De Verkeerde Krant’ or so, (‘van de verkeerde kant’ was a Dutch saying for a queer person) but due to storage I could not keep everything as a resource to use. There are hundreds of these painted drawings, and they get quite a good response. Paul Thek = newspaper paintings, Karen Finley = same as Paul Thek, Erik Hagoort is the partner of Dutch artist Albert van Westing and AA Bronson showed a fondness for the drawings.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02260-c2015-TwA4-BecauseICantDoIt?
  • Title
  • Because I can't do it?
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Acrylic paint on pages of Gai Pied magazine
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

The pages are yellowed and cracked with age. Dutch Curator Erik Hagoort gave SMW a few huge boxes of these French gay liberation magazines from the 80s, and SMW intuitively started painting on them. There are many more than those listed in the archive.

  • Reflection Notes

“I had to throw away a lot of these, there were also Dutch gay liberation magazines in the boxes Erik Hagoort gave me, called ‘De Verkeerde Krant’ or so, (‘van de verkeerde kant’ was a Dutch saying for a queer person) but due to storage I could not keep everything as a resource to use. There are hundreds of these painted drawings, and they get quite a good response. Paul Thek = newspaper paintings, Karen Finley = same as Paul Thek, Erik Hagoort is the partner of Dutch artist Albert van Westing and AA Bronson showed a fondness for the drawings.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02292-c2015-TwA4-IKnowWhatImDoing
  • Title
  • I know what I'm doing
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Acrylic paint on pages of Gai Pied magazine
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

The pages are yellowed and cracked with age. Dutch Curator Erik Hagoort gave SMW a few huge boxes of these French gay liberation magazines from the 80s, and SMW intuitively started painting on them. There are many more than those listed in the archive.

  • Reflection Notes

“I had to throw away a lot of these, there were also Dutch gay liberation magazines in the boxes Erik Hagoort gave me, called ‘De Verkeerde Krant’ or so, (‘van de verkeerde kant’ was a Dutch saying for a queer person) but due to storage I could not keep everything as a resource to use. There are hundreds of these painted drawings, and they get quite a good response. Paul Thek = newspaper paintings, Karen Finley = same as Paul Thek, Erik Hagoort is the partner of Dutch artist Albert van Westing and AA Bronson showed a fondness for the drawings.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 02324-c2015-TwA4-CanISortItOut?
  • Title
  • Can I sort it out?
  • Dimensions
  • 29.5 x 21
  • Materials
  • Acrylic paint on pages of Gai Pied magazine
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Technical Notes

The pages are yellowed and cracked with age. Dutch Curator Erik Hagoort gave SMW a few huge boxes of these French gay liberation magazines from the 80s, and SMW intuitively started painting on them. There are many more than those listed in the archive.

  • Reflection Notes

“I had to throw away a lot of these, there were also Dutch gay liberation magazines in the boxes Erik Hagoort gave me, called ‘De Verkeerde Krant’ or so, (‘van de verkeerde kant’ was a Dutch saying for a queer person) but due to storage I could not keep everything as a resource to use. There are hundreds of these painted drawings, and they get quite a good response. Paul Thek = newspaper paintings, Karen Finley = same as Paul Thek, Erik Hagoort is the partner of Dutch artist Albert van Westing and AA Bronson showed a fondness for the drawings.” – SMW.

Close

Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 00011-2015-TwRp-ReallyBadPracticeLeadsNowhere
  • Title
  • Really Bad Practice Leads Nowhere
  • Dimensions
  • 150 x 64
  • Materials
  • Acrylic on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Reflection Notes

Inventorying session + invited archivist (IA) meeting – 15.09.20. “Cold cases – they are closed. They never found a killer. They never found the archive.” –SMW, MH, RR, IA.

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  • Catalog No.
  • 00215-2000-PsW2000-IMPOSSIBILITYOFLIFE
  • Title
  • IMPOSSIBILITY OF LIFE
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Pen on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical

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  • Catalog No.
  • 00249-2000-PsW2000-LEAVINGAWORKOFART
  • Title
  • LEAVING A WORK OF ART
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Poster marker and pen on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Reflection Notes

Email exchange – 12.06.20. “I think music for me in my estimation is more far reaching in general than art, it’s much more of a ‘leveler’ and less classist or so, for example…” – SMW.

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  • Catalog No.
  • 00281-2001-PsW2000-IAmGay.
  • Title
  • I Am Gay
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Poster marker and pen on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical

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Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 00313-2000-PsW2000-IFeelLikeAnAdolescentAgain
  • Title
  • I Feel Like An Adolescent Again
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Poster marker on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Reflection Notes

“Is art our job? A psychologist got annoyed with me. ‘Art is a choice’, they said.” – SMW. “I would have stabbed them. The fact that you love what you are told that loving what you do makes it a vocation is a neoliberal brainwashing. Work, little capital slave. No! It’s still labour. It’s still hard and difficult to engage with at times, there’s no higher calling.” – AC.

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  • Catalog No.
  • 00345-2000-PsW2000-NOMOREGUILT
  • Title
  • NO MORE GUILT
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Poster marker on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Reflection Notes

Rijksacademie Internal Open Studios – 07.09.20. “20 years ago, sentimental without irony was not accepted. Feelings, no no no.” – Anon. “The rejection of knowledge production as cerebral. Spells, they bring out feelings.” – Anon.

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  • Catalog No.
  • 00377-c2000-PsW2000-TheFeelGoodFactor
  • Title
  • The Feel Good Factor
  • Dimensions
  • 50 x 65
  • Materials
  • Crayon, pastel crayon and poster marker on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Reflection Notes

“How do people go a month without sex?” – AC.

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Image of Studio object

  • Catalog No.
  • 00409-2001-TwHd-TheWhiteBoy
  • Title
  • The White Boy
  • Dimensions
  • 42 x 59
  • Materials
  • Poster marker and pen on paper
  • Object Location
  • Physical
  • Reflection Notes

“I like looking a bit rough. That you can see the signs of life in a man, that turns me on.” – SMW.

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