Category Archives: assemblage

Under Threat // Onder Dreiging

25 Wednesday Jun 2025

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A society defined by fences

And talking of violence

Shrinks to miniature.

Under Threat – I

Een samenleving bepaald door hekken

En door praten over geweld

Krimpt tot een miniatuur.

Under Threat – II

When stupidity is exposed

It may become explosive.

Under Threat – I (detail)

Als stompzinnigheid wordt blootgelegd

Kan het explosief worden.

Under Threat – II (detail)

Assemblage “Under Threat / Onder Dreiging”

(metal, wood, A1 gypsum, paint, stone, sand, 70x35x30 cm)

Text & photos (c) Drager Meurtant June 25, 2025

Critic Building a Future // Criticus Bouwt een Toekomst (1)

04 Saturday Jan 2025

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In creating art, this artist examines human actions and the resulting society, with bonds and clefts.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bij het scheppen van kunst, onderzoekt deze kunstenaar het menselijk handelen en de maatschappij die hieruit volgt, met verbindingen en kloven.

The Oil Terminal at Dissension

After one village a second was build // and as so often / these contained two communities / with different beliefs. // After peevishness came quarrel / and this raised high: a full five meters. // The arrival of the oil-terminal / changed little apart from more fencing. // The bridge does not unite the inhabitants / but enables them to dwell on different paths.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

De Olieterminal bij Tweespalt

Na één dorp werd een tweede gebouwd / en als zo vaak, / waren het twee gemeentes in het geloof. // Na wrevel kwam ruzie / en die liep hoog op en wel vijf meter. // De komst van de olieterminal veranderde weinig / behalve nog meer heining. // De brug verenigt geen bewoners, / maar maakt dat de wegen gescheiden voortgaan.

the oilterminal at dissension / de olieterminal bij tweespalt

(assemblage, 78x58x9 cm, DM, 2013)

The Trek (Modern Times)

27 Thursday Jun 2024

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Is there more pressure, a heavier load / a road more insidious?

The Trek (Modern Times) – I

Is the texture of existence ruder / and less predictable and / is nature no longer trustworthy / not even in ourselves?

The Trek (Modern Times) – II

Yes, with the objective to serve / ourselves most / we become more otherless.

The Trek (Modern Times) – III (detail)

Sculpture, assemblage of wooden laths, coated with A-1 cast and paint plus piece of soap in cloth coated with A1 cast; 59x45x33 cm.

(c) Drager Meurtant, June 2024

Borders and Fences

06 Thursday Jun 2024

Posted by in archeology, art, assemblage, Dada, defense, demography, development, Figurative art, History, kunst, landscape, philosophy, poetry, rocks, society, Uncategorized

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At the age of one year, the artist Drager Meurtant (b. 2012) wanted to create a vision of the world in it’s infancy.

With mountains, a lake and mystical homonoid figures standing idle.

“With a few”


“The mountains that I encountered, the swamps and gadflies: for milennia remained nearly unchanged: One time the first people came, or were Neanderthals earlier? People won, but whether that was the best outcome? “

In the years that followed, the increased tendency in our world to strengthen frontiers, raise walls, and push back ‘illegal’ immigrants, became a worry and cause to doubt progression of human society.

This did in 2023 lead to transformation of the above sculpture – assemblage, into “Borders and Fences”


The lake became a place for a small city with skyscrapers.

“Borders and fences – 1”


A high gate was raised, on a scale that in real life would be 10 m high, and that makes existing roads and path dead-ends.
And a refugee camp was created on the other side of the fence.

“Borders and fences – 2”

Two societies come into existence, populated by the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.

“Borders and Fences – 3”

After the ‘Chinese Wall’ and the ‘Hardrian’s Wall’, modern society got to know the ‘Iron Curtain’, and became aware of the fences that separate Northern and Southern Korea. However, in 2024 the length of walls and fences that separate Israel from Palestine, the (U)SA from Mexico, and in several countries in Europe to impair crossing the borders for immigrants impossible stretch of thousands of kilometers…

“Borders and fences – 4”

All images and texts by Drager Meurtant, 2013 – 2024.

Transformation

10 Sunday Mar 2024

Posted by in art, assemblage, Dada, Decay, inside, kunst, photography, poetry, stones, street photography

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A visit to old leather factory in Oisterwijk (NL) May 8, 2014, combined with a view of paintings by WOLS in Museo Sofia Reina in the same year, Madrid (E) made me create assemblage.

old leather factory in Oisterwijk

With group of 12 photographers, we were allowed to search for good places to photograph.

One Way Out

One way out

“So, there is only one way out. // But there are no stairs. // There is no rope, no trampoline. // You have no wings even. // Knowing that the heat will become intolerable / how do you get out?!”

Concrete benches for machines
Crypt in the “church” named Leather Factory Oisterwijk, NL

Not to be seated

“Here one stands in awe / and one’s mind lingers / about those, who once were sitting on the benches. // But after what happened / the holiness of this sacred site / does not allow anyone to be seated here / anymore.”

Three Trestles under the Hatch

“Three trestles under the hatch: Even, / if the memory / of an empty room / with stone trestles, that once

all photos, texts & art (c) Drager Meurtant, 2014 – 2024


Half timbered houses / vakwerk huizen

10 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by in art, assemblage, Dada, graphics, History, houses, kunst, landscape, Le Pays, photography, street photography, Uncategorized

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From early youth, with walks in province of Limburg (NL) I was attracted by half timbered houses.

The architecture consists of a construction with partitions shaped by wooden beams, often made of oak, with in the partitions twigs with loam, later bricks.

Near Slenaken / bij Slenaken, Limburg, NL (Drager Meurtant, 2012)

Van mijn vroege jeugd, met wandeling in Limburg (NL) was ik aangetrokken door vakwerkhuizen.

De bouwstijl bestaat uit een constructie met vakken gevormd door ruwe, veelal wat gekromde balken, vaak van eiken, met in de vakken vroeger takken met leem, later baksteen.

Nu kunst tot m’n dagelijks leven behoort, is er vorm gegeven aan collage – relief van een vakwerkhuis.

“Haus zur Frieden” (Collage – Relief, Drager Meurtant, 2021)

In current time, with art being part of every day’s life, a half timbered hhouse was created with collage-relief.

This year, also wood cut was used to create an image of a hamlock with half timbered homes in the mountains.

Houses and mountains / huizen en bergen (DM, 2022)

En dit jaar is er ook het medium houtsnede aangewend om vorm te geven aan een gehucht in de bergen, bestaande uit vakwerkhuizen.

(for more see http://www.meurtant.exto.org)

Ensemble de Creatures and l’Autre Ensemble de Creatures

06 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by in art, assemblage, creation, Dada, Figurative art, kunst, painting, poem, poetry, poezie, Uncategorized

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In 2014, and again in 2018-2019, artwork came into existence, that may be seen as ‘Ensemble de Creatures’

In 2014, en opnieuw in 2018-2019, ontstond een kunstwerk dat gezien wordt als een ‘Ensemble de Creatures.

(1) Ensemble de Creatures (2014)

Some creatures / placed behind glass and it’s double / others in front / all take their place / that is determined / by the other.

The house is a dream / which is within reach and / the cage protects against breakage.

Wings need a starting – or resting point.

The cadre / points to the space / outside.

ensemble de creatures-1

Sommige creaturen / geplaatst achter glas en wel dubbel / anderen ervoor / nemen ze ieder een plaats in / die bepaald wordt door de ander.

Het huis is een droom / maar binnen bereik en / de kooi beschermt tegen breuk.

Vleugels hebben een start- of rustpunt nodig.

Het kader / duidt de ruimte / daar buiten.

(c) Drager Meurtant, 2014 (mixed media, wood, metal, glass, ‘objets trouvés’, paint, 75x53x27 cm)

 

(2) At the start of the next ‘ensemble de creature’, this panel – having been used to separate the doghouse and dog run – was taken.

Aan het begin van het volgende ‘ensemble de creatures’, dit paneel was gekozen – eerder gebruikt om hondenhok van – ren te scheiden.

Ensemble de creature - outline

 

l’Autre Ensemble de Creatures (2018-2019)

Already, the flamed / pattern of the wooden panel / held the design of this painting.

The nails of the dog / (think it was a bouvier de flandres) / added scratches, that were given company / by the cutting effects / of an angle grinder.

The fields that surfaced / became creatures of some kind / as colors were applied.

DSC09901

Het gevlamde patroon / in het houten paneel / bevatte al de opzet / van dit schilderij.

De nagels van de hond / (denkelijk een bouvier) / voegde krassen toe / die gezelschap kregen / door het bijtend effect / van een haakse slijper.

De velden die / aan het oppervlak kwamen / werden creaturen van enig soort / toen kleuren werden aangebracht.

Painting / Schilderij, winter 2018 – 2019. Poem / gedicht 6 Augustus 2019.

Alle text and images (c) Drager Meurtant.

http://www.meurtant.exto.org

Parque Tématico del Granite, Los Santos

04 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by in abstract, art, assemblage, installation, kunst, landscape, nature, outdoor, photography, poetry, rocks, street photography, Uncategorized

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In the province of Salamanca in Spain, close to the village Los Santos, there is the amazing Parque Tématico del Granite de los Santos.

Driving small and quiet road from Salamanca to Bejar, the parc is on the left. Huge blocks of granite, derived from nearby quarry, are placed as installations (see photos).

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“if you are able / to put stones together / likes tones in a composition / the wind will whistle compliments.”

 

DSC08696

“The stand-still of stones is a dream that moves at a speed, unvisible for the human eye”

 

DSC08699

“The clang of rocks, hit by a hammer, produces a pain that can be tolerated by sculptors”

 

DSC08702

The artist puts a metal figure on rock: stone age preceded iron age.

DSC08701

the last sentence I leave to you…

Water – H2O

14 Thursday Dec 2017

Posted by in art, assemblage, Dada, kunst, painting, poem, poetry, poezie, street photography, Uncategorized

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Let us linger on the state of water, as fluid.

Laat ons stilstaan bij de staat van water, als vloeistof.

 

(1) Barges on the River Maas

Barges flatten the water / till waves / roll aside / from the prow, /

take distance / and break upon the river-bank. //

Reeds move / and dampen the billows. //

On the river /  the distance is crossed by foam /

that separates left from right, /

there, where the goal / has been passed. //

With eyes looking ahead / steers the skipper / the vessel /

towards another bend / in the counter current. //

Crawling crosspoint / in going / passed the mill-point.

(poem 2000, photo 2012)

DSC01584

(1) Aken op de Maas

Aken varen water, plat / tot golven, / uit de boeg / opzij rollen, /

afstand nemen / en breken op de wal. //

Het riet beweegt / en dooft de deining. //

Op de rivier / streept schuim de afstand door / scheidt links van rechts, /

daar, waar het doel / is voorbij gevaren. //

Ogen vooruit gericht, / stuurt de schipper / zijn vaartuig /

naar weer een bocht / in de tegenstroom. //

Kruipend kruispunt / in het gaan / voorbij het maalpunt.

(gedicht 2000, foto 2012)

 

(2) The Face of the stream

“The face of the stream / changed with the seasons . . . now it wore a gentle face”

 

(from: Morris West – The devil’s advocate)

the face of the stream

(Het gezicht van de rivier / veranderde met de seizoenen . . . nu was het aanzicht vriendelijk”)

(uit: Morris West – The devil’s advocate)

(painting / schilderij, 21×29 cm, 2017)

 

(3) Currents

Still, I don’t know / whether to swim / against the current / or to drift along. //

For the time being / I watch what / happens to others.

DSC06494

(3) Stromingen

Nog steeds weet ik niet / of ik tegen de stroom in / moet zwemmen /

of me mee / moet laten drijven. //

Voorlopig kijk ik toe / naar wat anderen overkomt.

(Assemblage-collage, 2016, 30x21x3 cm)

 

(all texts and artworks by Drager Meurtant, unless stated otherwise)

The wholeness of elements

31 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in art, assemblage, Dada, death, installation, kunst, poezie, Uncategorized

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An essay as Drager Meurtant, titled “Assemblages: the entrails explained”, has been published end of 2015 in Axon Journal Issue 9 (on assemblage, free on line access).

In the form of a poem, the essence of creation of assemblage can be formulated as follows:

Painting elements

Elementary pain / fits the precisionist. // When hammer hits thumb, / the outcry / of the artist / becomes the glue / of the assemblage. // And paint / drenches the pieces / into steady oneness.

painting elements

Assemblage, wood, metal, glass, paint; http://www.meurtant.exto.org (2014, in private collection)

Installations are different.

This artist must take more time to get to the essence of installations. Here are just two examples (first image, then text):

drone landed

Drone just landed in a meadow

This drone does not spy nor harm / except blades of grass / and only if pushed.
(One unique printed photo on aluminium available at 36 x 28 cm, 2013)

Bao strictcontor-2

Bao Strictcontor

In particular / at the end of day / is the bao strictcontor / subspecies Grohe / at its deadliest. / The bite can come / from the crane-shaped head / and also the circular mails / of the many tails / contain a stealthy poison / that at long stand-still / causes death of veterans. (80 x 40 x 25 cm, 2013)