Harmen de Hoop examines conventions in society, mainly outside the exhibition space. Specific spots in public space are anonymously manipulated. By moving objects, people or animals the interpretation of the conditioned surroundings changes. Earlier De Hoop has painted outlines of a basketball field on a parking lot, placed a coat rack on a tram stop and highlighted an entrance to a Rotterdam Metro Station with the word ‘HOTEL’ in huge letters, as if inviting all vagrants and junkies to spend the night there. Occasional passers-by can doubt reality while being confronted by these absurd situations. A child playing football on a small flight hillock with grass? Or how about the usefulness of a fire extinguishing attached to an information board? The interventions in urban surroundings are not always easily recognized but in the context of an exhibition space the images of interventions and manipulations become irrevocably art. Super dry art which assumes an idea that juggles space and time.
Wallgallery 