Skizze für Tiefzug Alphabet
27.10.2017, Brüssel

Rosa Sarholz

These letters and symbols are used for deep-drawing vacuum formed signs. They were found in the workshop of WIELS on a class trip to Brussels in October 2017. There were rumours that Marcel Broodthaers used them (not yet confirmed).
‘Between 1968 and 1972 Broodthaers made a series of vacuum-formed plastic reliefs, each of which was industrially fabricated, painted by commercial craftsmen, and realized in two versions (with opposing colour palettes). The artist called them ‘Industrial Poems,’ alluding to their manufacture as well as their play with language. Broodthaers used plastic, he said, to ‘free [himself] from the past,’ wittingly adding, ‘These plaques are fabricated like waffles, you know’ − a nod to his Belgian heritage. (www.moma.org/collection/works/146905)

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