121/183,
761 photos of red-brown steel freight wagons with a painting on the side*

Printed in the Netherlands by Wilco Artbooks
Graphic design by Sandra Kassenaar and Bart de Baets with Yoohee Cha
Lithography by Mariska Bijl
Essay by Francois Chastanet
Text editing by Billy Nolan

Apaperbook publishing
https://www.apaperbook.com/

*different counts produced different results. A number of 764 is more likely.

Compared to spray paint, latex roller paint has the big advantage of speed, especially if used with a handle and stick. Moreover, it does not smell badly. And you don’t need a gasmask to prevent the inhalation of fumes. Winter and autumn are less suitable for using latex on steel because of the greater chance of rain and cold. Latex dries badly in wet weather. The best months are May to September. It is also useful to keep an eye on the dew point. A good rule of thumb is to maintain a maximum relative humidity of 85 percent. White latex is sold in buckets of 10 litres, or sometimes even in extra-large buckets containing 25% extra. The convenience of those extra-large buckets is that a wide roller with its handle can be stored in it. If you camouflage buckets with brown and green paint, you can hide them easily in a bush near the scene of the action. That saves a lot of hassle. You only need to turn up with a small linen bag containing black and white spray paint. The white latex paint was often bought at a big hardware store nearby. The brand of latex was of the cheaper variety. It does cover well, as long as it doesn’t rain and there’s no morning dew. In that case the paint falls right off. The paint covers well because it contains a lot of chalk. However, it is intended for interior walls and not for steel exposed to all sorts of changeable outdoor conditions. Sometimes the painting faded after a few months, which was totally acceptable because the photograph was the most important proof of existence. No work of art is forever. No matter how well a work of art is preserved, at some point it will be gone. Donald Judd’s coloured metal sculptures will one day rust away or be melted down. In this sense, every work of art is no different than a sand mandala made by Buddhist monks.