Leonie Harkes

In today’s Western capitalistic society, our fixation on happiness can seem almost religious. Happiness, comfort and pleasure are the closest things we have to a summum bonum, the highest good from which all other goods flow. This obsession has trickled down into our visual culture. Take social media content, which generally provides an illusionary visual representation of reality, predominantly skewed towards the joyful, beautiful and enviable: ‘What appears is good; what is good appears’. Even though pain, sadness and death are an inevitable part of every human life, even the most fortunate, unhappiness becomes the summum malum, the greatest evil to be avoided. Which results in a tendency to hide or suppress the manifestations of sorrow, let alone visually represent them. In contrast to 17th century Dutch art, when ‘memento mori’ artworks were specifically designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the shortness and fragility of human life. With my wallpaper “What Goes Up, Must Come Down” I’m trying to subtly reintroduce the concept of ‘memento mori’ into the 21st century. Bringing together appropriation, postproduction, psychology, silk screen printing techniques and a common household product. Not hiding, denying or suppressing the painful side of life, but accepting pain as an inevitable consequence of being alive and creating space for it. For whomever might need that space. It may not shake the foundations of the current order, but at least it allows sorrow to be present against the backdrop - and that is a start.

Equally as much joy has been put into the design, as into the writing of this publication. It has taken shape in the form of an almost 10 meter long leporello, as to embody the associative train of thought from which its content originated. Moving from one subject to the next, gathering and reassembling seemingly contradictory and cross disciplinary elements into a – mostly – coherent narrative. Riso-printed on Rebello 100 grams recycled paper, using Hunter Green and Aqua to resemble Disney’s “Go Away Green” and “Blending Blue”. Limited edition of 10.

In today’s Western capitalistic society, our fixation on happiness can seem almost religious. Happiness, comfort and pleasure are the closest things we have to a summum bonum, the highest good from which all other goods flow. This obsession has trickled down into our visual culture. Take social media content, which generally provides an illusionary visual representation of reality, predominantly skewed towards the joyful, beautiful and enviable: ‘What appears is good; what is good appears’. Even though pain, sadness and death are an inevitable part of every human life, even the most fortunate, unhappiness becomes the summum malum, the greatest evil to be avoided. Which results in a tendency to hide or suppress the manifestations of sorrow, let alone visually represent them. In contrast to 17th century Dutch art, when ‘memento mori’ artworks were specifically designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the shortness and fragility of human life. With my wallpaper “What Goes Up, Must Come Down” I’m trying to subtly reintroduce the concept of ‘memento mori’ into the 21st century. Bringing together appropriation, postproduction, psychology, silk screen printing techniques and a common household product. Not hiding, denying or suppressing the painful side of life, but accepting pain as an inevitable consequence of being alive and creating space for it. For whomever might need that space. It may not shake the foundations of the current order, but at least it allows sorrow to be present against the backdrop - and that is a start.

Equally as much joy has been put into the design, as into the writing of this publication. It has taken shape in the form of an almost 10 meter long leporello, as to embody the associative train of thought from which its content originated. Moving from one subject to the next, gathering and reassembling seemingly contradictory and cross disciplinary elements into a – mostly – coherent narrative. Riso-printed on Rebello 100 grams recycled paper, using Hunter Green and Aqua to resemble Disney’s “Go Away Green” and “Blending Blue”. Limited edition of 10.

Equally as much joy has been put into the design, as into the writing of this publication. It has taken shape in the form of an almost 10 meter long leporello, as to embody the associative train of thought from which its content originated. Moving from one subject to the next, gathering and reassembling seemingly contradictory and cross disciplinary elements into a – mostly – coherent narrative. Riso-printed on Rebello 100 grams recycled paper, using Hunter Green and Aqua to resemble Disney’s “Go Away Green” and “Blending Blue”. Limited edition of 10.

In today’s Western capitalistic society, our fixation on happiness can seem almost religious. Happiness, comfort and pleasure are the closest things we have to a summum bonum, the highest good from which all other goods flow. This obsession has trickled down into our visual culture. Take social media content, which generally provides an illusionary visual representation of reality, predominantly skewed towards the joyful, beautiful and enviable: ‘What appears is good; what is good appears’. Even though pain, sadness and death are an inevitable part of every human life, even the most fortunate, unhappiness becomes the summum malum, the greatest evil to be avoided. Which results in a tendency to hide or suppress the manifestations of sorrow, let alone visually represent them. In contrast to 17th century Dutch art, when ‘memento mori’ artworks were specifically designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the shortness and fragility of human life. With my wallpaper “What Goes Up, Must Come Down” I’m trying to subtly reintroduce the concept of ‘memento mori’ into the 21st century. Bringing together appropriation, postproduction, psychology, silk screen printing techniques and a common household product. Not hiding, denying or suppressing the painful side of life, but accepting pain as an inevitable consequence of being alive and creating space for it. For whomever might need that space. It may not shake the foundations of the current order, but at least it allows sorrow to be present against the backdrop - and that is a start.

Equally as much joy has been put into the design, as into the writing of this publication. It has taken shape in the form of an almost 10 meter long leporello, as to embody the associative train of thought from which its content originated. Moving from one subject to the next, gathering and reassembling seemingly contradictory and cross disciplinary elements into a – mostly – coherent narrative. Riso-printed on Rebello 100 grams recycled paper, using Hunter Green and Aqua to resemble Disney’s “Go Away Green” and “Blending Blue”. Limited edition of 10.

A white bird on a green river, two And then, three One electricity pole, two, three Even more bushes roofs and clouds and stalks of grass It’s hard to count on a train And so, I’m not mentioning them In fact, I think I’ll just write One single bird Or maybe just it’s wings Excerpt of ‘Landscapes’ by T. Carmi

The essay “Unlawful Entry” about art in the public realm was brought forth by the collaboration with Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, during the “Nacht van de Geschiedenis” (Night of the History). A selection students of the Royal Academy of Art were invited to produce video-based work to examine the theme “Hij/Zij” (He/She) or reference the exhibition “In de Hoogstraat” that ran from June - October 2019 at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. The videos were created with the history of the city and the personal memories of its citizens in mind. During the “Nacht van de Geschiedenis” the works were projected in large scale on selected buildings in Schiedam, creating a dialogue between the videos and the historic context of the locations. Curated by Hester Scheurwater.

It is fair to state that we’re living in a spectacle society. The importance of self-representation can be placed in perspective by Guy Debord. He stated that in the decor of Capitalist societies, “social life is being dominated by the economy”. In the first stage of this domination, the economy influences social status to the extent that what you own becomes more important than who you are: “an evident degradation of being to having”. This stage is followed by “a general shift from having to appearing”. It’s no longer necessary to literally accumulate productions of economy, as long as you keep up appearances. This illusionary representation of reality, or ‘spectacle’ as Debord calls it, has become more relevant than the real world. “The spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. Which drives a need to approximate a stock photo-like image in order to receive extrinsic validation. ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ emerged from the desire to juxtapose the idyllic, but fictitious spectacle that people compulsively use to advertise themselves with, and replace it with every day, genuine emotions. In this particular case the haggard faces of people riding their bike through a difficult, high-traffic intersection in the Netherlands.

It is fair to state that we’re living in a spectacle society. The importance of self-representation can be placed in perspective by Guy Debord. He stated that in the decor of Capitalist societies, “social life is being dominated by the economy”. In the first stage of this domination, the economy influences social status to the extent that what you own becomes more important than who you are: “an evident degradation of being to having”. This stage is followed by “a general shift from having to appearing”. It’s no longer necessary to literally accumulate productions of economy, as long as you keep up appearances. This illusionary representation of reality, or ‘spectacle’ as Debord calls it, has become more relevant than the real world. “The spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. Which drives a need to approximate a stock photo-like image in order to receive extrinsic validation. ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ emerged from the desire to juxtapose the idyllic, but fictitious spectacle that people compulsively use to advertise themselves with, and replace it with every day, genuine emotions. In this particular case the haggard faces of people riding their bike through a difficult, high-traffic intersection in the Netherlands.

It is fair to state that we’re living in a spectacle society. The importance of self-representation can be placed in perspective by Guy Debord. He stated that in the decor of Capitalist societies, “social life is being dominated by the economy”. In the first stage of this domination, the economy influences social status to the extent that what you own becomes more important than who you are: “an evident degradation of being to having”. This stage is followed by “a general shift from having to appearing”. It’s no longer necessary to literally accumulate productions of economy, as long as you keep up appearances. This illusionary representation of reality, or ‘spectacle’ as Debord calls it, has become more relevant than the real world. “The spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. Which drives a need to approximate a stock photo-like image in order to receive extrinsic validation. ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ emerged from the desire to juxtapose the idyllic, but fictitious spectacle that people compulsively use to advertise themselves with, and replace it with every day, genuine emotions. In this particular case the haggard faces of people riding their bike through a difficult, high-traffic intersection in the Netherlands.