Incubators by Ted Noten

Artist list

Ted Noten

Some of them may be either old idols or infatuations (occasionally even including outmoded morals), or more recent icons; from former teachers still revered, and contemporary role models like Amanda Goreman, to the fictional, yet always inspiring, Spock from the Star Trek series. People from the world of music - like Jimi Hendrix and Icecube – will follow in due course.

It would be out of character if Noten would refrain to a polite bow of admiration… No, the artist really went all the way! His guiding-line was a quote from yet another figurehead, Marcel Duchamps: ‘always contradict yourself, never give in to repetition’.

Noten produced monumental, outspoken pieces, all of them accompanied by the I.D.card of their source of inspiration. The variety is wide-ranging: an almost life-size, 3-D printed likeness of Mahatma Gandhi wears an infinite, though utterly simple cotton thread as a necklace – fitting to his humble demeanor. A neck piece dedicated to Sigmund Freud on the other hand, demands a similar attitude of the wearer as his books do on their reader; Noten engraved already several remarkable texts by the shrink on the aluminum parts of the work. In total, there will be no less than ten of such portraits in the exhibition.

Once again, the gallery space will become a platform for outspoken, willful pieces. Perhaps not your first choice when you go off shopping, the pieces are nevertheless explicitly meant as jewelry pieces. As an exploration of the expressiveness and unlimited possibilities of this medium. Noten produced necklaces as an appeal to speak out, as a clarion call.

/ Ward Schrijver
(© Galerie Rob Koudijs)