2018, acrylic on mdf, dimensions variable
Exhibition: Gerrit Rietveld Academie Graduation Show, Gerrit Rietveld Acadmie, Amsterdam
Naivety in the eyes, the adorable red hat, its fidgety gesture and the multiplicity of small elements made use by its functionality… I could go on and on to justify my mere fascination towards—straightforwardly put—its “cuteness”. And despite my hesitation on announcing its cuteness, what else can you ask of a signage fulfilling its very task? In grasping my attention from afar, drawing me closer and closer as I discover its need for a background, stories, dialogues, hummings and outfits for its own. As I look at it go but unable to move far—where can I take it and in what nuances can I “communicate” for this little one, silent and lost for words
The figures liberate. For a second, they escape. From that tangy utterance of “You are our future”. From our nature to throw forth our hands—to get a hold of these cute little ones while it’s soft and mouldable—they dodge away, ready to make their moves towards the opposite of that protected path of ours that follows “right”; they’d rather go left. They are many and different; confused themselves, unknowing, unwilling to sit still, desiring to scribble all over those unallowed surfaces. Can we let them be?—guides full of errors, signals to be located slowly... Through their stories and mark-makings, what familiarities can we recognise about our own selves of bygone?