The Vanishing of the Artist
Marinus Boezem
Installation
1983/2015
Pair of the artist's shoes and binoculars
On the Abdijplein, there is a pair of binoculars. Looking through them one sees a pair of the artist’s shoes on the highest parapet of the tower known as the Lange Jan. They are low American boots. Our attention is caught by three vertical bands: red, yellow and blue. The toes point to the horizon, the laces hang loose, the tongues stick out. They are abandoned, high above the world. The owner seems to have dissolved into thin air while looking out over the city.
Boezem borrowed the idea for The Vanishing of the Artist from a Native American tradition. They placed the shoes of the recently deceased at the edge of the village to set their spirit free.