In corona times, the future seems like a black hole. How many new Covid variants are still to come? More contagious ones? Or even more dangerous ones? Either way: the world will have to learn to live with this virus. We must move towards a normal situation. One that also normalizes social relationships and prevents unnecessary bankruptcies of businesses.
In the middle of the 2021 lockdown I made this wild mane of hair of a woman. The sculpture is inspired by a wooden bust that I saw in the wonderful museum Beelden aan Zee (Sculptures by the Sea) in Scheveningen. The exhibitions there are almost always good. The human figure is central there, as is the quality of the exhibited artists.
Bad hair day
I limited myself to the back of the woman’s head. In this project, I only wanted to learn to carve hair from wood. That is quite an art. But the result yielded an unexpected bonus. Place the ‘half’ sculpture against a black background and it looks as if the head is looking through a wall. That’s why the sculpture has been given two names. ‘Future outlook’, because my lady seems to look further than we can see now. For us, the future is still black. She already sees what awaits us.
The second name ‘Bad hair day’ came about on a Saturday, in the wood workshop of master wood carver Jan van Harskamp. Searching for my own sculptural form, detaching from the museum example, at some point I let out a deep sigh. How do we proceed now? In Zeelandic dialect: ‘Oemommenoe?’ This provoked fellow student Dick to make the brilliant remark: “Maybe she’s having a Bad Hair Day?” And with that I had a working title to cheerfully continue with.
Dimensions
The dimensions of the sculpture: height 34 centimeters, width 26.5 centimeters.
Ideas
Ideas for new sculptures: After a female mane of hair, I also want to carve a windswept wild beard. I’m thinking of a rugged forester or a polar explorer, the head deeply tucked into an enormous hood. A 21st century version of a monk under his habit, reading a bible. A beautiful wooden sculpture that I once found in a hospital in Gronau, just across the border from Enschede.
