Common Sense Is A Hungry Bitch

by Chantal Rens published by PANTOFLE BOOKS

Collection of collages 2008-2018. Signed & numbered.

People and press on a book:

“And how to resist the hilarious collages of the Dutch Chantal Rens? A man who puts his nose in the coat of a cat (photo above), a child who hits sausages or a bather who serves as a perch for a parrot are the protagonists of his visual saraband. She has just self-published a collection of collages called Common Sense Is a Hungry Bitch.” (…)

© Impairs de ciseaux by Clémentine Mercier / Libération 23.09.2018

“Chantal Rens’ Common Sense is a Hungry Bitch is a hardbound book of Rens’ subtly surreal collages. Set against bright, glossy pages, most the collages do not try and camouflage themselves—they are obvious cuts and pastes that destabilize scenes of domesticity. The photos Rens uses feel like part of a time capsule, a family photo album of relatives and pets and food uncovered and manipulated by an exacting hand. Unsettling and sometimes nearly undetectable, Rens’ collages make Common Sense the record of an alternate, beautiful, and disjointed reality.”

— Printed Matter, Inc., New York

“Common Sense is a Hungry Bitch collects an array of collage work by Chantal Rens, striking and uncanny interventions that challenge what you’re seeing. The warm and weathered quality of the images from mid-century vernacular source material lull the viewer into a certain comfort, the nostalgic tint of Life magazine or a family photo album torn and pasted into jarring contortions of people, animals, and scenery that are swapped amongst themselves, irrevocably mixed-up. Surrounding the collage images are carefully juxtaposed spot colors that enhance this familiar yet uncomfortable tone and bring you deeper into spreads where each image begs a double-take.”

— Printed Matter, Inc., New York

“Many different images have been combined to create new, unusual and often hilarious scenes in this collection of collaged photographs, reproduced in full color, offset printed, hardcover with dust jacket, 98 not numbered pages, 21,5 x 15 cm, numbered/500, monogrammed, (Tilburg) 2018.”

— Boekie Woekie, Amsterdam