As Long As the Potatoes Grow
As Long As The Potatoes Grow
Pieter Slagboom
Once every five years, Vleeshal awards the Vleeshal Art Prize to a promising artist from Middelburg to support their artistic development. In 2018, Pieter Slagboom was selected with the exhibition As Long As The Potatoes Grow.
Slagboom’s work is a poetic analysis of contemporary society. His pencil drawings depict his inner world and allude to the major themes of life, birth, death, religion and sexuality. The soft, curly pencil lines and bright colours form a stark contrast with the explicit scenes. For the exhibition, the artist developed a new body of work, consisting of ten large-scale drawings on linen, set in a steel construction. The viewer was led along a labyrinthian route past the drawings which were dispersed throughout the entire exhibition space.
The design of the publication highlights some of the ideas within Slagboom’s work. The typographic layout with its shifted smaller and larger text block arrangements evolved from the exhibition plan that was loosely based on the medieval map of Middelburg’s narrow streets. The typography is functional yet warm and employs LL Bradford by Lineto throughout. The image sequence with its change between wider installation views and full bleed confronting close-ups push the themes of scale and proportionality, and reinforces the idea of movement.
The loose cover features a detail from one of the drawings with the name and title running across the spine. We chose a paper with a distinct canvas linen texture that responds to the materiality of the artist’s work.
Year: 2021
Client: Pieter Slagboom
Co-publisher: Vleeshal, Middelburg
Artist publication, 23.5 × 28.4 cm, 104 pages
Photography: © The Book Photographer
As Long As the Potatoes Grow
As Long As The Potatoes Grow
Pieter Slagboom
Once every five years, Vleeshal awards the Vleeshal Art Prize to a promising artist from Middelburg to support their artistic development. In 2018, Pieter Slagboom was selected with the exhibition As Long As The Potatoes Grow.
Slagboom’s work is a poetic analysis of contemporary society. His pencil drawings depict his inner world and allude to the major themes of life, birth, death, religion and sexuality. The soft, curly pencil lines and bright colours form a stark contrast with the explicit scenes. For the exhibition, the artist developed a new body of work, consisting of ten large-scale drawings on linen, set in a steel construction. The viewer was led along a labyrinthian route past the drawings which were dispersed throughout the entire exhibition space.
The design of the publication highlights some of the ideas within Slagboom’s work. The typographic layout with its shifted smaller and larger text block arrangements evolved from the exhibition plan that was loosely based on the medieval map of Middelburg’s narrow streets. The typography is functional yet warm and employs LL Bradford by Lineto throughout. The image sequence with its change between wider installation views and full bleed confronting close-ups push the themes of scale and proportionality, and reinforces the idea of movement.
The loose cover features a detail from one of the drawings with the name and title running across the spine. We chose a paper with a distinct canvas linen texture that responds to the materiality of the artist’s work.
Year: 2021
Client: Pieter Slagboom
Co-publisher: Vleeshal, Middelburg
Artist publication, 23.5 × 28.4 cm, 104 pages
Photography: © The Book Photographer