“Der Tag entseelt, die Nacht entkörpert.”
2024Der Tag entseelt, die Nacht entkörpert.
Afmeting / Dimensions: 250 x 65 x 290 cm.
Mixed media.
The house and the domestic play a prominent role in the work of Frank Halmans. Halmans places recognizable elements together and plays with the proportions, making the whole look alienating.
This work represents a hybrid bunk bed of four layers, but is at the same time a scale model of an apartment with four floors.
The sleepers themselves are absent. As a spectator you can secretly view the traces they have left behind and the specific layout of their sleeping place. The place to sleep is very personal and shows the interest of the sleeper.
What they have in common anyway is an interest in reading and books. Judging by the unmade beds, the burning reading lights and the open books, the residents are bed readers. They inhabit their bed as if it were their office.
For example, an entomologist can be recognized by the books on insects and paraphernalia related to insect collecting. Another, clearly a melancholic, reads books on heavy subjects and collects portraits of his heroes that he has pinned to the wall. A third are travelers who are tired of reading and fantasizing about distant destinations. A fourth sleeper is the insomniac, who lies awake at night and is constantly plagued by endless thoughts and reflections.
