In memoriam / ter nagedachtenis

Tjeu Teeuwen et al., In search of the kingfisher, card in memory of Hans Waanders with text by Thomas A Clark, photograph by Peter Foolen.

Bas Jan Ader's conceptual take on the romantic quest and, particularly, his use of the photographic record is adumbrated in a photograph of Waanders, taken in 1994 by Peter Foolen. The black and white photograph shows Waanders casually dressed and shading his eyes as he looks out across the Geul river, a tribrutary of the larger River Maas, in the Geul valley of Limburg. As with Ader's photographs in In search of the Miraculous (One Night in Los Angeles), Foolen's image might seem a relatively straightforward representation of the romantic artist in the throes of his search. However, this photograph in fact articulates a more nuanced relationship between Waanders and the object of his "quest" 

Foolen's photograph, has been used to accompany Thomas A Clark's laconic tribute to Waanders that was printed as a postcard by the October Foundation in 2001 shortly after Waanders' death. Like Foolen's photograph, Clark memorialises Waanders' seminal encounter with the kingfisher but also acknowledges the indelible impressions that Waander himself made during his own brief life (bron: Ross Hair, Brilliant Absence, 2019).

Simon Cutts, Coracle Press, Tipperary, Ireland, 2001

Tjeu Teeuwen, Alcedo atthis, Alc, Kinfisher, published in memory of Hans Waanders, Stichting October Eindhoven, 2001

In memory of Hans Waanders, print by Alec Finlay, Hans Waanders – Small Publishers Fair London, Peter Foolen Editions, 2012

Alec Finlay, poem, Hans Waanders – Small Publishers Fair London, Peter Foolen Editions, 2012

In Memory of Hans Waanders (4 January 1951 – 24 June 2001)

"Last week it was 8 years ago Hans Waanders died. Many years after Hans planted perches – for kingfishers to sit on – along a stream near Deuchar Mill in Yarrow, Scotland, this bird was spotted in this place. Helen Douglas sent me today these photographs of the kingfisher visiting last week the recently restored Deuchar Mill Pond at her house in Yarrow"(Peter Foolen).

"...the amazing thing is I have never seen a kingfisher here in all the 34 years. So it was quite wonderful to see this beautiful bird, hovering and dipping and flitting from tree to tree around the pond which has brought liquidity to the mill. For over 20 minutes. I felt the pond blessed..." (Helen Douglas to PF, 2 July 2009).

Hans Waanders - IJsvogelwiel, Empel, 1984

Peter Foolen - IJsvogelwiel, Empel, 2007

letterbox WWLB002, Empel, 2007

Letterboxing is a form of hobby walking and rubber stamp collecting. Over the next few years Alec Finlay is placing 100 letterboxes at sites around the globe. Each box protects a circle poem. Some of the boxes are sited singly, in locations that are described in guides written by their keepers. Other letterboxes are composed into walks. These include circlesthroughthepath at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and Isle Arcs, Circles & Ways on the Isle of Thanet. Alec has also written about letterboxes and circle poems and discussed them in an interview with Elizabeth James. When you go letterboxing you can log your visit. See: www.alecfinlay.com

WWLB002
location Empel, near ’s-Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands)
keeper Peter Foolen
installed 18 November 2007

Peter Foolen, dedicated to Hans Waanders
note: this is the site Hans Waanders recorded as the beginning of his work on the kingfisher.