Wrapping paper. That was what drew the panel to this book of installations, figures and works on paper by Rob Voerman. Wrapping paper automatically makes you curious, arouses expectations. It’s nice stuff, whether you’re a visual, a tactile or even an auditory kind of person. Where so many senses can be delighted, seduction will always be possible. In the case of Aftermath the wrapping paper outside and inside the book seduced the members of the panel into stepping over what they saw as the less than perfectly successful front cover.

The simple fact was that there was plenty left over to enjoy. The alternation between wrapping paper and book paper in the interior is simple and consistent: wraps or outserts of Bruinpak kraft round a white section. We become familiar with Voerman’s work entirely according to the rules of the visual narrative. We see works on paper in a variety of techniques, and structures made of demolition wood, corrugated cardboard and pieces of coloured glass: sometimes huts, sometimes machines. It all has to do with the space we live in, our world.

The presentation is a mix of exteriors and interiors, framed photos and bleeds, whole shots and details. The scenario seems not to notice the sheets of kraft that occasionally crop up, and as a result we find spread-wide photos half in colour on white and half in monochrome on kraft. It all creates a lean and rough feeling which is not at all out of place. If the attendant looked the other way and you stretched out your hand to stroke one of Voerman’s huts, you’d have a splinter in your hand. That kind of feeling.