Biography

Discussion

As an artist, Charly van Rest uses photographic images taken himself or by others. He is not concerned with the documentary or registrational qualities of a photo, though elements referring to the real world always play a role. Van Rest is also interested, however, in the suggestive effect of images, arising from a single photo, but also in combination with other photographic images and/or objects. Van Rest’s work is not easily categorised into any one movement. His feeling for unusual and mysterious combinations of images and objects, the role that intuition and coincidence play in his work, and the use of existing images and (utilitarian) objects all make him an heir to the Dada movement, Surrealism, and Pop Art. Van Rest’s taste for theatricality betrays his past as a performance artist. His preference for natural materials demonstrates his affinity with the Arte Povera.

By the time Van Rest began attending the RABK (Rotterdamse Academie van Beeldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschappen, ‘Rotterdam Academy of Visual Arts and Technical Sciences’) in 1967, he had actually already given up painting. Before this, he had experimented with ordinary oil-based house paint, applied in all kinds of styles and genres. At the academy, he decided on ‘publiciteitsvormgeving en grafisch ontwerpen’ (‘publicity design and graphic design’), a study programme where students were instructed in printing techniques and photography by Willy Schurman and others. Van Rest emerged as a jack-of-all-trades, possessing broad interests. After his second year at the academy, Van Rest began following his own study programme. His teacher Krijn Giezen gave him a tremendous amount of freedom and was an important inspiration, especially because Giezen himself was prone to incorporating natural materials in his work. In his academy days, Van Rest was chiefly interested in Pop Art, Arte Povera, and Land Art. It was during this period that he gave his first performances.

During these performances, which he also continued to give after leaving the academy, the influence of the Arte Povera was observable in the application of natural and everyday materials. Van Rest used these items to make objects for his performances, which later often became independent artworks in themselves. Van Rest’s interest in various aspects of theatre arose from this performance art: music, mime, and light effects began to play a significant role in his work. The installations—sometimes made in collaboration with other artists, e.g. The Return of Colonel Bogey with Paul Beckman in 1972—frequently took up the entire exhibition space. Van Rest shot photos of these performances and installations, which he often used again at a later point, either reworked or as they were.

Van Rest’s interest in Land Art was expressed in his boomverwarmingsprojekt (‘tree-heating project’), organised in Rijswijk together with Rick Vermeulen. The photos from this project, which involved insulating trees in the winter with straw, were later presented as independent works.

Electronic musical equipment gave Van Rest new opportunities to experiment with sound: he worked for quite some time as a disc jockey and compiled music cassettes for others.

In the 1970s, Van Rest travelled frequently to parts of the world such as the Near and Middle East, as well as North Africa and Indonesia. These trips intensified his interest in Eastern and exotic topics.

In 1986, Van Rest’s father died, leaving him all of his cameras. He began to photograph on a frequent basis and quit with giving performances. In his photography, Van Rest was chiefly drawn to scenes or elements in day-to-day life. The emphasis was on either the material or natural world, which often came across as mysterious or animated in his photos. No people figured in his photos.

Charly van Rest has made all kinds of things, perhaps with the exception of ‘bona fide’ paintings: collages, objects, assemblages, Land Art and performance art projects, art environments and installations, and photographs. In 1984, he presented a series of works that—in terms of their outer appearance—fall into a category somewhere between paintings and objects, which he referred to as ‘paint-jects’. The exhibition, entitled Schiljekten op de Rij (roughly translated ‘Paint-jects on the Row’), was held at the Westersingel 8 Gallery in Rotterdam. In addition, he developed a number of unique techniques for producing images, which he referred to with names such as ‘Ionfots’ and ‘Uvots’. Van Rest also devised a process to make coloured photograms.

In 1982, Van Rest came up with a method to make drawings using dust particles in the air. With the help of an ionisator, a device that produces ions (negatively charged molecules), he was able to produce a shower of dust. When the electrical charges of the dust particles were neutralised by the ions, they fell directly to the floor. By placing stencils and objects on top of paper, Van Rest was able to create patterns subsequently outlined by the falling dust. In the places where the stencils and objects had been laid, the paper remained white; after their removal, a drawing—or an ion photo = an ‘Ionfot’—became visible. Not only did the production of these drawings require several weeks’ time, but new dust or soot had to be continually supplied to the space where the Ionfot was being made. Van Rest achieved this with the help of a candle and an electric fan, and by regularly emptying a vacuum cleaner bag in the drawing’s proximity. This technique also proved to be useful for making colour drawings. Cigarette smoke, for instance, produced a brown residue, while incense produced a green residue. One was able to produce gradations in the tonal greys by varying the amount of time one left the stencils laying on the paper. Because the dust remains embedded in the paper, Ionfots have a long print permanence. Van Rest first exhibited drawings produced with this technique in 1986.

Using a sun lamp, Van Rest also produced what he called ‘Uvots’—derived from the term ‘ultraviolet photography’. This process entailed reworking images with the ultraviolet light produced by such an apparatus. The aggressive UV-light discoloured parts of an image not covered with stencils, thus bleaching the pigment in the inks used to print the image. As a result, a new image arose on top of the old. By applying this technique, an abstract-geometric pattern could be added to already existing images, such as posters or other reproductions. A second Uvot technique conceived by Van Rest is based on the use of UV-sensitive emulsions used in the silk screen industry. With a brush or a roller, Van Rest applied such emulsions to ordinary paper instead of a nylon silkscreen frame. The UV-light was projected directly onto the (vertically positioned) paper. By placing stencils and objects in the path of light, a photogram emerged. By adding a halftone and colour, a ‘Uvot 2’ was produced. Painterly effects could be achieved by varying the thickness of the emulsion.

Experimentation is an important part of Van Rest’s working method. In an interview with Jan van Adrichem, a former city curator of Rotterdam, Van Rest once said: ‘Every artist working effectively spends time experimenting. Continually developing new techniques is something that fascinates me. I am not looking for existing media, but for techniques derived, for instance, from the laws of physics. Eventually, the experiment always leads to new and surprising results. Technique is not what interests me most in this. It’s the final result that counts. The technique is merely a means of achieving the final result.’ Another aspect of Van Rest’s working method involves continually collecting objects and images, including existing pictures from magazines etc., photos he comes across, and—last but not least—photographs taken himself. Van Rest stores these images away in the closet— sometimes for years—until suddenly retrieving them for an installation or collage based on a new idea or recent discovery. Presentation and finishing are given significant attention, bringing an astounding degree of neatness and precision to his work. The combination of a sharply developed power of observation, a feeling for unusual topics—for matters ‘exotic’ or ‘primitive’—and the great care devoted to presentation gives Van Rest’s work a serene, crisp, and well-conceived quality on one hand, but also an alienating, almost mysterious mood on the other hand. Characteristic is his use of unconventional materials and the unconventional use of everyday materials, often in the aftermath of an in-depth study into their suitability and the visual effect to be achieved. Randomness can play a significant role when shooting photos—he takes them anywhere, e.g. while traveling or in his day-to-day life, whenever certain objects or a striking combination of objects catches his eye—just as when devising combinations of photographic images in a collage or installation. Virtually all of Van Rest’s photos are shots in colour, though the images he finds and reuses are also regularly in black-and-white.

In addition to influences from Arte Povera and Pop Art, elements of primitive and oriental art can also be identified in his work, though rarely concrete. Van Rest described this himself as an ‘inclination towards the exotic’. This is perhaps linked to his background, but without doubt greatly inspired by his countless trips to countries in the Near East, the Middle East, and Africa. The artistic climate in Rotterdam has also had an influence on his work, though Van Rest himself has contributed to shaping this climate. In 1988, his work was part of the exhibition Rotterdamse School? (‘Rotterdam School?’), which brought together a number of Rotterdam artists sharing a similar artistic mentality and working method. In the catalogue Compositie met Rozen (‘Composition with Roses’), which accompanied an exhibition of the same name featuring the work of Paul Beckman, Daan van Golden, Charly van Rest, and Joop Schafthuizen, Jan van Adrichem formulated this communal mentality and working approach as follows: ‘While a collective programme is lacking, the shared interest in re-using visual material is unmistakeable. Pre-existing images undergo photographic and painterly reproductive modifications or are confronted by images from other contexts in collages.’ Although no direct mutual influence exists, the shared artistic mentality to be observed may very well stem from the four artists’ friendship, which has remained close from 1967 to the present day.

The significance of Charly van Rest’s work with respect to Dutch photography cannot be readily defined. His unconventional use of photos in collages and installations, as well as his experimentation with all kinds of techniques associated with photography, are encountered nowhere in the artistic production of any other Dutch artist or photographer. The same applies to Van Rest’s intuitive feeling for the mysterious and exotic elements of day-to-day reality, which he brings to life in his photos. Although Van Rest has been exhibiting his work outside Rotterdam as early as 1985—and as well outside the Netherlands—it seems as if people are only now becoming aware of the relevance and distinctiveness of his work. The first signs of this acknowledgement are Van Rest’s solo exhibition in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 1991, his winning the Anjerfonds-Chabotprijs (‘Carnation Fund/Chabot Prize’), and his participation in the exhibition Vrij Spel, fotografie in Nederland 1970-1990 (‘Free Rein, Photography in the Netherlands 1970-1990’).

Documentation