
The Bonus Room
Source collection The Bonus Room

This quick snapshot taken at SCHIPHOL AIRPORT shows a complex infrastructure of signs, rules, gestures, restrictions and interruptions.

A PILE OF PUMA SHOE BOXES collapses and they get stuck behind a shop’s window. Although frozen in time, the cats jumping in all possible directions, makes the accident look like an elegant sculpture.

There was a time you were considered an absolute nobody if Lou Buche hadn’t peed your name. At parties Lou would get utterly drunk because people kept buying him drinks constantly to persuade him to write their names in his urine. On hot days his work would be gone in no time, but on a good day your name would be there for others to see for the duration of the rest of the night. During cold winters Lou melted the snow with his liquid gold for a more 3-dimensional experience of his work. I found a WATER-MADE X on the street, and took a picture of it, to send a kiss to Lou who has captured the names of so many of us by simply releasing his fat bladder.

I used to work around the corner from De Bijenkorf in Amsterdam. My studio partner at the time and I would visit the city’s most popular department store regularly to take breaks from work, to check out the latest shoes, or to simply eat lunch. I found a signthere once with a BIG RED EXCLAMATION MARK on it. It was hung up teasingly done so, facing the wall. The odd placing made the sign instantly lose its function. Although I felt compassion for the seemingly lost, yet powerfully designed punctuation mark, I wondered which evil genius had placed it so.

An arrangement of BRUTALIST MARBLE BLOCKS that has been tagged with paints all over. In Lisbon, if I remember correctly, but it could be Athens, also.

Some years ago, this CLINIQUE ADVERT was all over Amsterdam and I remember voting it “Best Poster in Town!”

It finally stopped raining. Not much later, a man came out who had looked for shelter earlier and continued his work on the chimney on the neighbor’s roof, when a RAINBOW appeared.

KNIVES AND SCISSORS.

My friend KAREN’S CAT truly is a designer’s cat.

I spotted a MURDER OF CROWS cooking up a meeting on the roof of our neighbor’s house.

A highly energized composition of BREAKFAST LEFTOVERS laid out on a cutting board, made of a half-eaten pretzel, a couple of very sharp knives, kitchen salt, an egg cup, some other cups, tomato leaves and a pair of tweezers.

An Instagram advert suggested I should purchase this DRYING RACK. It made me think of Marcel Duchamp’s bottle rack readymade.

An Instagram advert suggested I should purchase some 3M PHOTO MOUNT. It made me think of Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup paintings.

When exiting the church, the newlywed high-school teachers Maria and Jörg are awaited by their colleagues, who have made a MAKE-SHIFT ARCH of extra large set squares, rulers and drawing compasses.

Pieces of BARRIER TAPE.

A building under construction surrounded by SCAFFOLDING wrapped in tarpaulin in Madrid.

A BRICK WALL in Seoul, Korea (but it could be anywhere, really).

A WALL TEXTURE.

A STAEDTLER HB PENCIL.

A CUTTING BOARD.

I photographed these SCRATCHED UP PAVING STONES when I visited Brno to see the Design Biennial some years ago.