The Field is a short film that retraces the steps of Frederick Walker on the night of october 8th to 9th 1918 when he suffered a gas attack in a field near Houplines. It left him visually impaired for the rest of his life. The film is currently ready for festival submissions so I cannot publish anything online yet, but feel free to ask for a private viewing or go check it out on filmfreeway shortly.
Some background information
Within the ‘Fictive Archive Investigations‘ group Philippe Black, Julian Walker and myself embarked on a common project, Borderlines and Frontlines, handing over the archival pieces and information to the others so each could work on a personal approach with other people’s materials.
My goal was to embark on a pilgrimage to the places where they had lived their ordeal, document that as precisely as possible and create new work from my personal perspective. I received a fragment of Frederick Walker’s war diary, some regiment information and two possible locations for the gas attack in Houplines as well as several addresses in Brussels and Eupen from the Beck family. The latter resulted in a series of pictures that accompanies Julians take on the material that Philippe handed him.
With the help of the Flanders Fields Museum, I got hold of more detailed information that could pinpoint the exact location of the gas attack. I spent a week in the area, figuring out the possible routes Frederick’s regiment must have followed and went on numerous nightly trips filming those spots. On the 9th of october 2022, exactly 104 years later, I was in the field where it all happened. Well, actually I documented the three locations: the two Julian had pointed me too and the one I discovered. I made ‘reconnaissance’ drawings of those places as they are now, just like my own great-grandfather Joe had done during his time when he was on the lookout with his friend Samuel. This resulted in an accordion fold sketchbook with three landscapes and with the nightly videofootage, I made a short film retracing the exact route I had finally discovered.
Na de honderdjarige herdenking van de eerste IJzerbedevaart in 2020 kreeg ik dit jaar weer de opdracht om een nieuwe IJzerbedevaart in elkaar te boksen. Een hele uitdaging om een tweede editie op mijn conto te schrijven en tegelijk de vernieuwing in het herdenken van deze honderdjarige traditie door te voeren. De thema’s vrede, vrijheid en verdraagzaamheid blijven uiteraard centraal staan, en na de insteek van het vorig jaar, om die plek weer een vrijplaats te laten zijn voor de hedendaagse stemmen in het perspectief van die honderdjarige traditie, was het geen sinecure om die stemmen mee te krijgen op die plek, in die traditie. Tegelijk was de opdracht er om de bedevaart niet enkel voor die dag klaar te stomen maar ook te zorgen voor een langduriger effect.
Ik ging aan de slag met schrijfster en regisseur Kathelijn Vervarcke en we werkten verschillende pistes uit waaruit we een IJzerbedevaart konden samenstellen. Zo kwamen we tot de realisatie van twee scenario’s rond de figuur van Lode De Boninge die ook in een interview met historici Prof.Dr. Jos Monballyu en Francis Weyns werd geduid.
Een eerste kortfilm van Kathelijn die deze zomer werd gedraaid, “Elke tijd zijn Lode” bekijkt het verhaal van De Boninge vanuit verschillende periodes in de geschiedenis, en werd in een ‘quasi-historische’ stijl opgenomen. We bootsten archiefbeelden na uit die tijden en doorspekten die met een mogelijks persoonlijke blik van De Boninge, vanuit de biechtstoel. Het materiaal moet ook dienen als educatief pakket voor leerlingen van de derde graad, dus staken we er doelbewust historische vormfouten in, zodat jongeren echt van vals beeldmateriaal leren herkennen.
“Lode De Boninge, eigenlijk Louis” is een rechtbankdrama (en ook dat is de klucht) van de hand van Kathelijne en haar Dakbroeders, waarbij de ‘kritische toponymie’ op flessen wordt getrokken. Naar analogie met de bedenkingen bij de ‘Verschaeve straten’ gaan we dieper in op het in vraag stellen van de historische feiten in het perspectief van de hedendaagse vragen die ze oproepen. Ook deze kortfilm maakt deel uit van het lespakket dat werd voorbereid.
Twee historici werpen vervolgens hun licht op de figuur van Lode De Boninge: Prof.dr. Jos Monballyu combineert zijn twee vakgebieden, recht en geschiedenis, en bestudeerde, naast een uitvoerig oeuvre over heksenvervolgingen, de rechtzaken die tijdens en na WO1 tegen vlaamsgezinden werden gevoerd. Hij plaatst het mythevormend discours over de IJzerheld De Boninge in het perspectief van de feitelijke vervolgingen en veroordelingen. Francis Weyns dan weer is de auteur van de eindverhandeling (RUG) die de geschiedenis van de IJzerbedevaarten in het interbellum bestudeerde en waar we al uitvoerig uit hebben geput voor de tentoonstelling en IJzerbedevaart editie van 2020. Hij beschrijft hoe de mythevorming ontstaat binnen een organisatie die balanceert tussen radicaal pascifisme en rabiaat nationalisme.
Extra element dit jaar was een uitvoerig interview die ik had met Nelly Maes, dit jaar 80, die op de bedevaart -eindelijk- het woord kreeg. Als voorbereiding op haar bijdrage en ook omdat het nu eenmaal belangrijk is als museum om die flamingante geschiedenis te bewaren en ontsluiten, had ik een uitvoerig gesprek met iemand die die bewogen geschiedenis van dichtbij heeft meegemaakt en de delicate balans altijd in perspectief heeft gezet.
Uiteindelijk was het resultaat een ‘klassieke’ bedevaart aan de voet van de toren met, naast Nelly Maes dus, bijdragen van Kristin De Winter, over het werk van het Vlaams Vredesinstituut, en Wim Claeys die drie liederen bracht: een fragment uit zijn voorstelling “IJzer” waarbij WO1 als een banale familieruzie wordt bekeken, een lied van Stan Hodister uit 1917, “Wij Mannen”, dat ook het liederlijke leven achter het front beschrijft, en “k’zou zo gere willen leven”, het anti-oorlogslied van Walter De Buck. Traditioneel werd de (mea culpa, dit jaar iets te lang uitgevallen!) IJzerbedevaart afgesloten met een bijdrage van voorzitter Paul De Belder en de bloemenhulde naar de crypte.
The ‘Heldenhulde’ Headstone Joe English designed for the flemish soldiers during WWI. Using a celtic cross is a nice example of cultural appropriation, inspired by his Irish roots.
The family archive has proven to be a great source of inspiration. Two photography projects sprouted from the historical research: ‘Met Kop en Schouders‘ is an exhibition commissioned by ADVN to accompany the research, publication and database about ‘Heldenhulde‘. English designed the headstones this organisation provided during WW1. In ‘Mystic Land‘ I went on a pilgrimage to all the places he was during the war, resulting in a series of landscapes reflecting on the state of our world 100 years later.
Diving into that history for over a decade now, historical research in general and the history of flemish nationalism specifically, has become a constant element in my work. It has inspired me to setup projects like the ‘archive of untold stories‘ or even ‘byebye leopold‘.
Discover the historical research about Joe English, in dutch, at www.joe-english-kunstschilder.be where you’ll also find the newsletters (44 and counting!) that I have done the layout for since 2017.
Joe English, Leven & Werk
Biographical video on the life of my great-grandfather (1882-1918), painter and soldier who died during WW1, later a symbol of the flemish nationalist movement. The video was produced for an exhibition of his work back in 2008 and used in lectures.
I had the pleasure of being invited for a residency of two weeks at ZSenne Art Lab. The intention was to research and experiment with different forms of presentation, looking for solutions to tell stories with pictures and objects in a different and personal way. I came up with the archive as a form of unfolding different spatial scenarios. It refers to the historical research I’ve been doing a lot lately, spending a lot of time in different archives, but also to the temporality of items and their meanings.
The Archive of untold stories sprouted from the urge to find a way of presenting some of the projects that have been developing over the last months and years. These all vary in different stages of completion, some are over, some are ready to present, some are merely vague ideas still locked-in in a collection of items. By gathering all these projects box per box in an archive and a public space, it also gave me the opportunity of presenting the links between them, developing themes through different projects. When people visited, they related to different themes and boxes, but it always started long conversations that resulted in me getting lots of new paths to discover.
During the first days I mainly regrouped the items in separate collections and presented the keynotes that describe the different projects: Mystic Land, Marklin, Strada, Grenzen, The extinction survival archive and Molly.
As wel as some leftover prints, catalogues and books from older series, (Stadsbiografie, Bastards and Heldenhulde) a selection of prints from ‘Mystic Land’ were presented as an introduction to my work. Mystic Land used historical research to define places and routes to travel, resulting in a series that exposes how man uses his environment, manipulates it to his benefit, but not always to great result.
Building and thinking further on the environmental, Strada is the next project that tackles the theme. Back with my feet on the ground I would be exploring the highway researching its quality as a landscape and as a biotope. It is temporarily on hold due to a complete blocking of the flemish roads and traffic agency. The issue being safety, I suggested that knowing the problem may also resolve it, resulted in a categorical ’Njet’.
Another project in development is ‘Grenzen’ (Limits, but merely a working title). My ancestral research got me greatly interested and thoroughly knowledgeable about flemish nationalism. That movement has had a great impact on politics and society in the country. It has defined a language border, regional borders and many issues during its development over the last century. Like in Mystic Land I’m planning to meticulously travel alongside this demarcation and reflect on this division, supported by a study on limology, compiled and written by an expert in the field, Luc Boeva, who confirmed his aid and collaboration. I’m also looking into financing a residency in Dandong, China, on the North Korean border to do likewise research and creation on that border and the specific aspects of the bordertown. It will be a combination of landscape and documentary photography.
Shortly before starting the residency I came up with another idea to work on: The Extinction Survival Archive. The state of our global environment, the state of national and international politics, it all seems to be announcing an impending doom. While previously working on this theme with the company Random Scream (the pieces Investment, Expanding Energy, 7 promises and A better place) it seems twenty years of activism hasn’t really amounted up to much resolve: I should instead be organising the survival of my offspring. If our systems collapses, how can I provide the necessary information for my kids (or grandkids) who only have known the internet as a source of information when electricity will probably not be available to power a global network. Naively, I collected everything I had gathered from my ancestors (and just couldn’t part from): the horticulture courses from my grandfather, pocketbooks on basic building techniques from my architect father, books my parents had about health, natural medicine, internal medicine and even my own ‘SAS survival guide’ from my scouting days. It also includes a section of children’s books on geography, physics, the human body…
The Extinction Survival Archive instigated many long talks with visitors. We reflected on how a new monetary system would be needed and eventually we would go back to seeds as a payment method. How brussels people grew vegetables in public parks during WWII, or grew mushrooms, rhubarb and chicory in their basements. Reflections on ‘the power of the archive’. What would we need to stock in order to survive? The next step in this project will be starting up a Brussels ’preppers’ community: doomsday preparers are a common phenomenon in the states, so there must be a lot of knowledge. The aim is to gather and prepare for doomsday in a metropolitan environment.
While I would have wanted to do even more creatively, I must say the concept of presenting an archive of several projects in different stages of completion, felt like the right way of dealing with my work. It has something ancient, archaic, and refers back to my sources, the historical research and the knowledge I have been accumulating. But it also stays an active source, it keeps growing, keeps building up. Even if not every individual project will see completion, it enables me to keep working on my material and present it to a public, even if I can’t find the resources to start up new creations or the funding commissions keeps treating my work as irrelevant.
The biography of my great-great-grandfather Henry English, born in Waterford, Ireland in 1853. Orphaned by the potato famine, he arrived in Bruges at the age of 10, where he got an education as a gold embroider and married Marie Dinnewet, his drawing teacher’s daughter.
I made the layout and all graphical works for the 78-page book, self-published by our heritage foundation Joe English, Kunstschilder. A limited edition of 50 hand-bound de luxe editions were made by P. C. De Baere in Bruges.
In 2016 I started researching the whereabouts of Joe English during WW1 and consequently visited all these places. His get-away from the besieged city of Antwerp towards the Belgian coast eventually bringing him to Calais was one of the trips I attempted to do as he did, on foot. I described the research and the travels on a blog (in dutch) and presented the results at Museum aan de IJzer, from september 2017 to march 2018.
There’s two sets of pictures:
contemporary landscape photography shot on film with a Pentax67.
A set of cross-processed snapshots of subjects that survived 100 years of history.
In 2015 GoneWest engaged us as directors for the event ‘Woordfront’ commemorating the first gas-attacks of WW1. In Tielt, the military headquarter-city of the German army from where the attacks were ordered, we setup four groups of volunteers that marched towards the central square. During the procession each group declamated a poem, one for each emotion: Fear, Grief, Anger and Hope. The groups were led by marching bands, mostly brass, playing compositions by Inne Eysermans (Amatorski). At the central square, they were met by three ladies, amongst them the writer of the poems, Saskia De Coster. From the belfry, they started a dialogue with the 1500 volunteers that gathered around in a grand finale.
The event was broadcasted live on local tv-station Focus-WTV, mixed by Erik Hauters.
Unfortunately there’s no full video online anymore, but here’s some things that are still online:
