Speculum
SMACK
Performance
A digital triptych inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, SPECULUM is a mirror of the present day. Always-on technology, ubiquitous branding, environmental collapse; SMACK calls out contemporary ills using 3D animation and shrewd references to popular culture.
SPECULUM comprises three panels — Eden, Paradise and Hell — and is the result of a three-year project initiated in 2016. As part of the Hieronymus Bosch 500-year anniversary, the Stedelijk Museum Breda (formerly the Museum of the Image / MOTI) commissioned SMACK to create an artwork after The Garden of Earthly Delights. The result was Paradise, based on the central panel of Bosch’s masterpiece.
While lust takes center stage in the original artwork, SMACK’s Paradise calls out the excesses of 21st-century society. Sex is ever-present, with rows of penis-horse riders circling mid-screen; branded packaging blights the landscape, while in the foreground a Gangnam Style dancer seeks thumbs up approval.
Artists
SMACK
SMACK is the award-winning trio of digital artists Ton Meijdam, Thom Snels and Béla Zsigmond.
Based in Breda, Holland, the three studied together at the School of Fine Arts and Design (AKV) St. Joost and founded Studio Smack in 2005. Working with computer generated imagery and 3D animation, they produce films and video pieces inspired by contemporary culture. Their works explore consumerism, surveillance, the pervasiveness of branding, and personal identity in the information age.
Credits & mentions
In coproduction with Friche la Belle de Mai With the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
