Bough shelter (readymade, Hampstead Heath, London) Drawing

Born 1986 in Nieuwvliet, the Netherlands Currently living and working in London, United Kingdom ‘Hermit. I wonder what the world is doing now.’ Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or; Life in the woods I am fascinated by the concept of the recluse living a simple secluded life in natural surroundings; especially the role of this concept in modern society. One of my main inspirations for my art practice is, and has been, the book Walden; or; Life in the woods by Henry David Thoreau. In the spring of 1845 Thoreau built a cabin in the woods near Walden Ponds in Concord, Massachussets where for two years he lived a secluded life. Next to his daily activities the book describes his meditations about modern society and human existence. Thoreau believed that the sicknesses of the contemporary soul could well be cured by a rediscovery of living in nature. Thoreau provides almost diagrammatic instructions on how to live in the woods. I found similar obsessive instructions in survival guide books. Illustrating and informing in a very formal manner how to deal with dangerous situations one could encounter when living in nature. I started reconstructing these illustrations in drawings combined with small sculpted figures that perform eccentric, rituals. One semi nude figure is raising his arms, opening his jacket, making himself look bigger. He is scaring of a mountain lion but the object of danger is not present. Another nude figure is leaning against a tree stump. He looks slightly absent. He is demonstrating how to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre when no one is around. Without their context these images become comicly absurd. I do believe that this fascination with hermitism and survivalism is more widely shared. If we look closely we can recognize an emergence of this fascination in popular culture. There are numerous television shows from the last decade about living and surviving in nature. Ray Mears’s World of Survival, Les Stroud’s Survivorman and the more extreme Man vs. Wild by Bear Grylls are just to name a few. Most of these shows are based on the same concept where the host is put in a hostile environment for usually a consecutive period of time. Solely depending on his knowledge of nature the host demonstrates how to deal with extreme conditions. The supposed reality factor of these shows, and with it their integrity, have been heavily disputed.