A Quiet Necessity
was not dictated by ideology but, at best, by a per sonal and social condition he chose for himself and that chose him. In other words, in Buedts’ furnituremaking activities – here we are only talking of a few objects produced over the course of a dozen years for personal use – were not intended to prove anything ; he was not crying out either against capitalism or in favour of some hypothetical proletariat ; he simply lived in accordance with the millennial rhythm of someone ‘who inhabits the earth’. Naturally, no action
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is naive, and an artist’s action is far less naive than any other, as he or she, by definition, should be aware of what he or she is doing (and awareness is incom patible with naiveté). Buedts’ choice was therefore dictated by his close adhesion to a model that is not ideological – meaning ‘superstructural’, according to the materialist terminology much in fashion at the time – but existential : when compared with Buedts’ work, even Vincent van Gogh’s early paintings, the one of the boots and the one of the potato eaters, seem
Grote stofrol [Big Roll of Fabric], 2007 Eik, krijt / Oak, chalk, 132 x 32 x 32 cm Privécollectie / Private collection