Untitled (Self Portrait)

Kijkcoach Ben: "Dit is een zelfportret van de kunstenaar, maar je zou hem er niet snel in herkennen doordat het van suikerklontjes is gemaakt. Vaak vraag ik aan bezoekers hoeveel suikerklontjes zij denken dat het zijn."

In de tekening hieronder zie je hoe kunstenaar Tom Friedman zijn portret op heeft gedeeld in vakjes.

Sugar? Yes indeed! Tom made a portrait of himself out of sugarcubes. Built out of thousands of sugarcubes he’s standing here in front of you.

With this work Tom is referring to editing work you can see sometimes on your computer or phone. Sometimes people are blurred on screen. Pixelation is another word for this. But Toms portrait is three dimensional, not digital. He is an artist who plays with the interaction between materials and thoughts.

Toms artworks are made of household materials. Like sugar, cardboard and tin foil. But those materials don’t remain the same. Tom makes them rise above themselves. He makes you honor the materials he uses. You’ll look at them in a different way. 

Us humans consist of bones, skin and hair. We also have organs of course. But most of them aren’t visible, they are on the inside. What we do see are eyes, blushing cheeks and hairdo. All of them have different colors. They are never as with as sugar. We are also not angular. Still, Tom managed to make an unmistakable human being. You can tell immediately that it’s a copy of a person. Even if it consists of cubes.