Artists: Wim T. Schippers, Daniël van Straalen
Exhibition title: 7 year old me
Curated by: Melchior Jaspers, Julia Mullié
Venue: NEST, The Hague, The Netherlands
Date: November, 2019 – January 5, 2020
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and NEST, Rotterdam
The sensitivity towards language, humour and the banality of the everyday are central topics in the exhibition 7 year old me. Nest shows Wim T. Schippers and Daniël van Straalen in a unique collaboration. In a playful, but serious manner, they attach value to seemingly worthless things. By disrupting existing, albeit invisible codes, the artists throw you back onto your own intuition, in which the anti-climax triumphs.
In the run-up to the exhibition, Schippers and Van Straalen are frequently in contact. They have written, challenged each other and together they have broken their heads about all kinds of questions. 7 year old me shows new and familiar work by both artists.
Wim T. Schippers (1942) developed iconic artworks as well as television programmes, radio programmes and theatre. In 1961 he founded the A-Dynamische Groep (A-Dynamic Group), a collective that called for ‘true uninterestedness’, ‘lack of style’ and ‘weakness’. In the work of Daniel van Straalen (1987), the relationship between archetypes, memes and popular culture are central. For all three of these aspects, authenticity plays an important role. Van Straalen is interested in ‘originality’ and ‘temporariness’ and sometimes goes against the idea that art is always for eternity and must be preserved. And while there is a large age difference, this is bridged by the idea that both artists were seven years old.
