SRI 5: Collage on Canvas 2008

SRI 5, 2009 - 2010, collage on canvas, 50 x 50 cm.

FLUX WORK : ADVENTURES IN A BOX

ADVENTURES IN A BOX has launched.  The limited edition set of 24 prints, objects, drawings and collage works by Matthew Rose and Fritz Sauter is now available.

This image, Invincible, is an original collage and was created to serve as the cover for the edition, ADVENTURES IN A BOX.

FROM SLASHSTROKE MAGAZINE (UK): Bound to a desk in front of a computer screen is no doubt the formatting of new perspectives and outlooks, not always ideal but certainly explorations in varying directions. No longer confined to location what is quite heartening is the connections and networks that grow from chance encounters via the web. Work, ideas and output have a more open ideological middle ground, once its live it is in every sense out there, for interpretation, discussion, review and optimistically for growth and experimentation. Swiss artist Fritz Sauter came across the work of Matthew Rose (France) via various online media/gallery profiles, Red Fox Press, Facebook, Blogs and in particular a project by Rose,  A Book About Death (http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com/).

Mutual communication and image sharing of related ideas eventually spurred a trip from Paris to Schaffhausen in January 2011 to work free style in Fritz’s letter press studio and their combined abilities morphed into “Adventures in a Box,” a collaborative book project.


The box: powerful, magical and convenient. It is where jewels are kept and loved ones buried. Solid or flimsy, the box is the willing partner to most anything: Old letters, old clothes, cash, trash, ash. Our boxes shift shape and purpose: A suitcase, a briefcase, a cigarette case. Sealed by tape or string or the gravity of its cover, like a heart, the box beats out a certain secret. A gift. A poisoned gift.

That’s the wide-eyed premise of Adventures in a Box, a collaborative spiriting down the rabbit hole by Swiss-German and letterpress Kunstler Fritz Sauter, and Paris based American dadaist Matthew Rose. Like Alice through the looking glass, Adventures – in printed works and altered objects – are voyages of the mind: Trips that scribble backwards and upside down via letterpress; here text and image amuses, perplexes, maps out and reaches out.

Beginning with dozens of 36×36 cm cardboard boxes, purchased by Fritz from a local monopac-factory and a varied collection of cast off supplies from the local Salvation Army, the initial suggested to fill the boxes was the start of the “Adventure”. In a limited edition of 24, more than two dozen individual works in collage, letterpress, drawing, rubber stamp, altered objects and even buttons found are packaged like a massive Dagwood sandwich, multi-layered with each piece a chapter in a trip through death, love, drunkenness, God, Disney, pin-ups and the meaning of political discourse in a world gone akimbo. Stealing the flame from Duchamp’s Boite en Valise, the Frenchman’s “portable exhibition” of his significant works and ready mades, Adventures, is essentially a complete and ready-made exhibition in a box.

Once in the studio, which overlooked the Rhine, it was a mad rush of cutting and pasting and pulling type from an immense collection. “Fritz would ink up the press and we’d roll right through the day.” explains Rose. “The collaboration was intensive” says Fritz, “we discussed every aspect seriously – sometimes we found a way to make the works, sometimes we didn’t. We argued about translations, design, colours, paper,  it was like a marriage! But in art, I prefer to work in ways where meaning is different for people. Agreement was not the goal, conversation was the goal and in the end, the adventure.”


A gold record featuring ‘Fritz Sauter sings Vivaldi offers the B side of ‘Mathew Rose complains about Swiss food’. Another work is a simple button exhorting you to: FRAGEN SIE IHRER KUNSTLER (ASK YOUR ARTIST). Fritz also created a series of abstract drawings in crayon, and rubber stamps for each box. 

Meanwhile Matthew spent one afternoon composing 25 of his unique collages using American pin ups, medical illustrations and bits of magazine ads from the 1950s. Political posters in wooden type- “FUCK YOU AND YOUR POLITICS” – were paired with cold type text bitching about Western societies: “THE SWISS ARE PERFECT”

“We filled the ‘Schachtel’ (box) with almost every idea we had during the four days in Switzerland,” says Fritz. ” You can take each piece in your hands and examine it. The art is intimate, but it’s also quite a surprise. So many different ideas, but I can hear (and see) them all talking to each other. Its like a guide to some strange place!”


The limited edition work is dedicated to the French artist Jean-Paul Chagniot (1951-2011), who died just as the project was launched. Two boxes are already in the art collection of the city of Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Only 9 boxes are available available.  For more information on the edition: ADVENTURES.  

5CINQ

5CINQ, 1993. Installation view, BOUTEILLES CHIFFRE, IVRY/SEINE, FRANCE 1993. Click to enlarge.

LAIT NOIR

LAIT, 1993. Installation view, BOUTEILLES CHIFFRE, IVRY/SEINE, FRANCE 1993. Click to enlarge.

ROUGE

ROUGE, 1993. Installation view, BOUTEILLES CHIFFRE, IVRY/SEINE, FRANCE 1993.

Click to enlarge. Also exhibited: Rosella Junck, Berlin June 2008 and The Wall Gallery, Berlin and STORIE, Paris, 2011.

ADVENTURES IN A BOX: ONLY 9 AVAILABLE

ADVENTURES IN A BOX has launched.  The limited edition set of 24 prints, objects, drawings and collage works by Matthew Rose and Fritz Sauter is now available.

This image, right, Invincible, is an original collage and was created to serve as the cover for the edition, ADVENTURES IN A BOX.

Price: 500 Euros for a boxed set plus shipping and handling – 25 Euros – anywhere in the world. Only 9 boxes are available available.

For more information on the edition: ADVENTURES.

FUCK YOU & YOUR POLITICS : EDITION 75

Fuck You & Your Politics, printed by Swiss artist and letterpress printer, Fritz Sauter. Editon: 75.  Each print measures 32 x 25.75 cm on acid-free paper, and is printed in black. There are 10 unnumbered, signed and dated artist proofs. Contact here if you would like one free.  Only 5 available free.

Kick In The Kunst: Bottle Edition

A Kick In The Kunst, Bottle Edition. 2008.  Edition: 39. 

Exhibited at Rossella Junck, Berlin, 2008.

BOCA WORKS: FOREVER 2009

FOREVER, collage on wood, 40 x 30 cm.

DUMB BUNNY STENCIL PRINTS

Hand-made, Dumb Bunny Stencil Prints. Sizes vary but mostly 21. × 29.7 cm (8.3 × 11.7 in) or larger; paper, largely fine art paper, some vintage Arches.

Each signed and dated, but not numbered.

THE LOVE AFFAIR 2010

THE LOVE AFFAIR, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

THE HISTORY OF ROMANCE 2010

THE HISTORY OF ROMANCE, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

SEYMOUR GLASS 2010

SEYMOUR GLASS, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm. 

RHUM BA 2010

RHUM BA, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm. 

NEW EWE 2010

NEW EWE, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

TROUBLE ON THE FARM 2010

TROUBLE ON THE FARM, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

COCK SURE 2010

COCK SURE, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

JORGE LUIS BORGES 2010

JORGE LUIS BORGES, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

MOLLY 2010

MOLLY, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

AMERICAN DREAM 2010

AMERICAN DREAM, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

MISUNDERSTANDING REALITY 2010

MISUNDERSTANDING REALITY, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm. 

JACQUES 2010

JACQUES 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm. 

LIARS 2010

LIARS, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm. 

PARTISAN 2010

PARTISAN, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

HOW TO FLY 2010

HOW TO FLY, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm. 

NEXT TUESDAY NIGHT 2010

NEXT TUESDAY NIGHT, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm. 

FREEDOM FIGHTER 2010

FREEDOM FIGHTER, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

SECRET ORGANIZATION 2010

NANNY IN THE PARK, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

REASONABLE DOUBT 2010

REASONABLE DOUBT, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

SCIENCE IN THE USSR 2010

SCIENCE IN THE USSR, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

NEWS FROM SRI LANKA 2010

NEWS FROM SRI LANKA, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

THE END OF PHILOSOPHY 2010

THE END OF PHILOSOPHY, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm.

JACKSON 2010

JACKSON, 2010. Collage on paper. From the series, Where Does It Itch? Each 30 x 20.5 cm. 

Paintings: Silkscreen Edition Text Works

Paintings Series (1999 is an edition of 10 with three artist proof sets. Ink on Paper. Sheet measuring 30" by 22 1/2".

The series is comprised of enlarged museum post card legends (captions) and include "works" by Rembrandt, Munch, Giotto, Morandi, Vermeer and other masters. 

These works stem from an ongoing interest in "word as image," and the texts in various languages intimate a range of meanings (images) to differing language speakers.  The "names" of these paintings, translated by someone, presumably in a large museum or indeed, in a post card (printing) facility, are rife with typographical errors, and grammatical mistakes. The translations themselves are quite a bit off, due, one can assume, to the "unofficial" nature of the translations and the business approach to pumping out product...for museum goers.

The pieces – silkscreen on fine art paper - also tell the story of a kind of image removal, as the original texts lifted from post card captions, enlarged several times on common photocopiers, then turned into a positive (black) film, then transferred to screen, and finally printed tell a story of how texts (and images) are subtly transformed through printing.

This series is permanently installed in the Boca Raton Museum of Fine Art, Boca Raton, Florida. The works have been exhibited in Paris (1999), Antwerp (2000) and London (2012).

Click on the essay (right) by Chris Mooney to enlarge and read.

There are several sets still available.  Contact.