Galway Bay Collage

My work focuses on the impact the economic and political climate has on our urban and natural surroundings. Cities and nature expand and shrink, through war, natural disasters and loss of cultures. More and more though cities and nature are being treated as currency in an explosive market for natural resources or real estate value, disregarding its inhabitants. Refugee camps are turning into new (temporal) cities, cities are being gentrified and nature is still disappearing at an alarming rate. Fred Robeson is a fictional character developed by Jeroen van Dooren Jeroen van Dooren’s work and research focus on contemporary notions of subjectivity, performativity and the role of the contemporary artist. Through fictional writing he creates characters which he develops into contemporary artists with each their own style of working How does the adaptation of the literary concept of the heteronym from fictional writing to contemporary art practice affect the artist’s identity and resulting narratives? What does it mean to create and embody a fictional artist who is separate from the self and how does this alter our perceptions of selfhood? In my work I bring together the literary concept of the heteronym, contemporary art, fictional writing and the relation between the self and other, originating from a personal experience of mental health issues relating to divided subjectivities. Autobiografictional characters are invented, their personas are assumed, and artworks are produced according to their own separate voices and ways of being. Making work as the fictional personas, these characters come alive via performances, text and audio pieces. The fictional characters are not there as a tool for hiding or for masking but are used as an instrument to investigate character development and the potential for multiple artistic personas within contemporary art. Currently he is working with the following heteronyms: Alain Borde, Alain Borde Foundation, Aoibheann de Brún, Christiaan van Nuland, Fred Robeson, Jane Porter, Jeroen van Dooren, Karl Kuznetsov also known as Carl Smith, Kees van Lankveld, Kim Lee, Lana Robeson, Pasithea Knijnt, Tom Singer and Will Finch.