Jef Stapel

Jef Stapel uses discarded materials from building sites: mainly plywood boards and sometimes perspex. The glue residue, old layers of paint, nail holes in the material are the starting point for his creations. He saws the boards, breaks them, cuts and chisels out shapes from them, glues and hammers parts of them together, layered on top of each other, adds a stripe of paint …

The main tool used to make these ‘paintings’ isn’t a brush but a chisel, and a saw, nails and glue. The pattern of the chiseling forms its own painterly texture, like brush strokes do.

Walls have ears. Just as light captures an image on photographic paper, sounds leave an impression on the surface of walls. Even the slightest sigh leaves a trace. These traces, however, cannot be detected by humans. At least, not yet.