My first encounter with the work of Jeff de
Boer was in Edmonton. This was in the Alberta Crafts Council's Gallery in
a downtown office building. On display were a few sets of armour for mice
which were a welcome respite from the 'serious' stuff which was the steady
diet in Edmonton galleries. Of the hundreds of exhibitions I have seen,
and the thousands of art works, the tiny, perfectly crafted articulated
armour for mice has remained embedded in my memory. The work appealed to
me on many of levels. It was exquisitely done. It related to the Middle
Ages (a fascination of mine). It was amusing and whimsical.
As I have never been one to argue the differences between
art and craft, which are so often based on dubious hierarchical systems
of value and merit, I had no hesitation in considering Jeff de Boer's
work as art. My first impression was confirmed a few years later when
I met the artist in his Calgary studio in the hope that the Art Gallery
of the South Okanagan would have the privilege of exhibiting his work.
De Boer's exhibition is entitled Articulation.
This refers to the fact that much of the work consists of articulated
sculpture. The word also implies an act of giving expression to something.
Essentially, the exhibition is an overview of about 10 years of de Boer's
work and can be broadly discussed by using four categories: armour for
cats and mice, armour for the corporate executive, armoured space vehicles
and armour as primeval (or ageless) form.
Jeff de Boer, Celtic Mouse Armour,1993, metal, wood base
Armour for cats, rats and mice
Jeff de Boer designed his first piece of armour for a mouse when he was still an art student at the Alberta College of Art. He continues to revisit the theme and his work keeps pace with the armour he sees, its different types, origins, and styles. He feels that armour has proven to be timeless. Just as clothing cannot be seen without thinking of a person who would wear it, so armour cannot be seen without thinking of an occupant. Further, the concept of armour becomes a metaphor for protection against hostile forces. For the mouse, this is the cat. But de Boer also puts armour on the cat to level the playing field’ as it were, since the cat is far less agile with the armour.
The armour has a great deal of character, taking on various cultural characteristics of its supposed occupant.
What de Boer has used is the form and shape of the armour, as well as its historical connotations to evoke a memory. He uses the European tradition of armour to evoke knights and their code of chivalry, and the armour of the Samurai, evoking its Bushido warrior ethic as well.
The artist says that, to his knowledge, he is the first person in history to build a fully functional suit of armour for a mouse.
Jeff de Boer, Briefcase for a Viking Corporate Raider, 1994, brass, leather, ebony, Private Collection
The corporate executive as a modern day knight
While the making of armour for cats, rats and mice is in itself a chivalrous creative act (protection of the vulnerable), de Boer has sought to bring the codes of chivalry into the Modern age by drawing a parallel between the knight of the Middle Ages and the businessman of the Modern age. Arms and armour take on more subtle forms: the briefcase is the weapon, the business suit the armour and the necktie the corporate badge or 'standard.'
Obligingly, the artist has designed chain mail neckties for modern knights.’ More subtly, perhaps, de Boer may also be suggesting that the code of chivalry might still inform modern business ethics for the greater benefit of mankind.
Jeff de Boer, Pit Stop, 1993, mixed media
Jeff de Boer, Fossilized UFO's, 1993, mixed media
Analogue rockets
Children reading Classic comics would read about Prince Valiant in one instance and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea in another. The Jules Vernes classics were among the first to popularize science fiction as a genre. Vernes also portrayed various machines for space travel (the rocket) and for underwater travel (submarines). These hypothetical machines were in a sense self-propelled armoured vehicles. It is quite natural that de Boer might wish to explore some of these fantastic projects as a kind of extension of his exploration of armour and its different uses. These images are, after all, immensely appealing in that we can now view them as both prophetic but rather naive, just as we could view travelling to the Moon in a balloon as naive. The analogue rockets essentially play with the notion of time, and resurrect forms which are the prototypes of modern spacecraft. It is a form of archaeology applied to science fiction.
Jeff de Boer, Exoform #5, 1993, metal, wood base
Exoforms
The prefix 'exo' denotes something outside or external. An exoskeleton according to the dictionary is 'an external protective structure or covering, as the hard shell of crustaceans.' Jeff de Boer's exoforms are forms derived from those 'external shells' (such as armour), and it is in these works that he gives free rein to his sense of admiration and wonder at the beauty of armour and its forms. He links these forms to the world of nature, and evokes the inspiration from nature that has nourished artists since , well, ...the Middle Ages!
RHB
