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| Title:Aileen W Medium:Mixed Media Dimensions:135x63x50cm Year:2010 |
| Title:Sweet Nothing Medium:mixed media Dimensions:82x40x40 cm, 32x16x16 inch Edition:unique Year:2010 |
| Title:Holy Shit Medium:Mixed media Dimensions:115 x 90 x 65 cm. Year:2010 |
| Title:Welcome to the Jungle Medium:alatolite Dimensions:66 x 35 x 35 cm Edition:3 Year:2009 |
The dark side illuminated
A heap of skeletons on the floor: not a nicely arranged composition of white bones but rather a haphazard collection of decaying bodies,
rustcoloured, stuck together by bits of clothing and flesh. The arms of one of the skeletons point upwards as if clutching at something. And sure
enough, there’s something on top of the heap that is in stark contrast with this beacon of decay.
It’s a small, naked little girl. Her blue eyes are wide open.
She is looking up, eyes askance. What’s this little girl about, sat in a place like this? Near her a lactating sow, its pink body covered in shit. Two
equally pink human babies lie by its teats. They too are covered in shit.
A heap of skeletons on the floor: not a nicely arranged composition of white bones but rather a haphazard collection of decaying bodies,
rustcoloured, stuck together by bits of clothing and flesh. The arms of one of the skeletons point upwards as if clutching at something. And sure
enough, there’s something on top of the heap that is in stark contrast with this beacon of decay.
It’s a small, naked little girl. Her blue eyes are wide open.
She is looking up, eyes askance. What’s this little girl about, sat in a place like this? Near her a lactating sow, its pink body covered in shit. Two
equally pink human babies lie by its teats. They too are covered in shit.
| Title:Life Sucks Medium:plaster Dimensions:55 x 85 x 120 cm Year:2005 |
| Title:death and a 9 year old Medium:Mixed media Year:2008 |
Then there’s another little girl. Naked and vulnerable, her young body that of a child. She looks up timidly. There she is, holding two plastic bags.
They look suspiciously like Albert Heijn bags with their trade-mark blue colour, its familiar logo replaced by the word ‘wonderland’ in the same
lettering. Slowly, this work is taking on meaning. For the past few years, artist Harma Heikens has been drawing on subjects from the edge of our
consumer society. She reveals that which is not usually clearly visible in a world that is obsessed by a flawless exterior.
They look suspiciously like Albert Heijn bags with their trade-mark blue colour, its familiar logo replaced by the word ‘wonderland’ in the same
lettering. Slowly, this work is taking on meaning. For the past few years, artist Harma Heikens has been drawing on subjects from the edge of our
consumer society. She reveals that which is not usually clearly visible in a world that is obsessed by a flawless exterior.
| Title:Wonderland Medium:Mixed Media Dimensions:90 x 55 x 40 cm Year:2005 |
| Title:Sunny Day Medium:Mixed Media Dimensions:100 x 55 x 40 cm Year:2006 |
It’s the flip side of things that matters to her, as illustrated by an early drawing of “Bambi’, not cute at all but throwing up violently. This hidden truth
is in the distortion of what should be beautiful and whole, like the bust of Disney’s sleeping beauty, her perfect skin covered in sores (or are they
zits she’s scratched open?). Heikens takes a sardonic pleasure in transforming clichés, by undermining the traditional meaning of the toy figures
and dolls we know from childhood. Their hidden horrors become visible. She does this with gusto and imagination, and with a lot of conviction. Her
latest work is a good example of this. It refers to a consumerism gone haywire, in which people as well as things have a market value.
is in the distortion of what should be beautiful and whole, like the bust of Disney’s sleeping beauty, her perfect skin covered in sores (or are they
zits she’s scratched open?). Heikens takes a sardonic pleasure in transforming clichés, by undermining the traditional meaning of the toy figures
and dolls we know from childhood. Their hidden horrors become visible. She does this with gusto and imagination, and with a lot of conviction. Her
latest work is a good example of this. It refers to a consumerism gone haywire, in which people as well as things have a market value.
| Title:Treasure island Medium:Mixed Media Year:2005 |
| Title:spring time Medium:Mixed Media Dimensions:95 x 45 x 40 cm Year:2006 |
| Witzenhausen Gallery Presents Harma Heikens |
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