Wessel Baarda

Bio: Baarda’s work aims to examine, deconstruct and reconfigure appropriated online content to form new associations between images and separate realities, in an attempt to make sense of our hyperconnected and oversaturated reality, one step at a time. The basic images don’t serve as an enclosed image, rather a space of possibilities and probabilities. This is primarily enabled by digital post-production processes that leave their visible marks in the final work, revealing their source as well as leaving the nature of their creation up for discussion. Sourcing surreal, comic elements, and popular culture to then illustrate mental states, unconventional ideas, and mostly, elaborated (fictional) worlds. The work contemplates our contemporary reality, in which the limits between real life and fiction are as close to disappearing as ever. Creating narratives that highlight the absurdity of the strange times we live in.

Website: https://www.wesselbaarda.com/

Instagram: @wesselbaarda

Day 21
A collage made out of old photo's of Yorkshire Terriers. On top is a biscuit and drawings of woodworking skills being performed.

Rare Breed

Day 20
A screenshot of a Youtube video for the world record: fastest tortoise. It shows a still saying 82 km/h.

The Tortoise and the Hare

Day 19
A screenshot of a youtube video for the world record: longest plank EVER. It shows a black screen saying 2185 meters.

Longest plank EVER

Day 18
A photo of royal guards standing in a line with two people holding up a microphone in front of them

testestest

Day 17
A Triptych of 3 different elements. on the left there is a red rectangle with the word left in it, in the middle theres a black and white photo of a pile of coals and on the right there is a blurred image that is unrecognizable

When you think things are looking up

Day 16
A GIF made out of different stickers available on the Instagram Story page. It shows a man holding up fake grass. On his face someone is drawing a smiley face. In the top left corner it shows a fried egg.

Story after Story

Day 15
A photo of a residential white house with graffiti all over it that says in huge letters AAAAAH

OOOOOH

Day 14
A screenshot of a fictional youtube video where I break the world record for wearing the most t-shirts. The current record is at 260 t-shirts. The screenshot shows the text: 265 T-SHIRTS

Breaking the Record

Day 13
A line drawn illustration of a rocking chair with an illustrated coloring page for a dressup doll on top of it.

Un Chat

Day 12
A hommage to John Baldessari. The image shows a collage made out of different parts of the face. Some are still recognizable and others are just a solid color. A hand is holding up a red apple to the abstract face.

John & Me

Day 11
A blurry image of different computer parts flying towards the viewer. The work is a commentary on online shopping culture.

Add To Cart 2

Day 10
A blurry image of an explosion of groceries coming at the viewer. The image refers to the ease of access of online shopping, while at the same time creating this sense of overwhelmingness.

Add To Cart

Day 9
A custom made Emoji out of different elements. Its a face with a pear nose, a mustache, very large glasses and a red beanie pulled half way over its face covering most of the eyes.

Universal Language

Day 8
A collage of different wooden panels with cartoons of Lucky Luke bandits stealing treasures all over the image.

Misfits

Day 7
An image of a close-up of a car window in the rain. Under the windshield wiper, there's a paper with an altered L'il Abner cartoon. The cartoon shows a man waving his fist at a canvas with a stick figure dog on it. The caption says: "In Greenwich Village later, between wondering where the next meal was coming from, I tore my hair searching for approval from the art world."

Seeking Validation

Day 6
A still image took from a Looney Tunes cartoon with the characters erased. In the still image you see a green pillow with some flowery wallpaper. On top of the green pillow are the negatives of different cutouts of shapes standing straight up. They all cast a shadow of the different shapes on the pillow.

Shapeshifting

Day 5
An image of a Frankenesque bouquet of flowers made up out of all kinds of different flowers in a Coca-Cola bottle. In the background you see a camper van with an image of a landscape on it and a guy in smart clothing standing next to it. There are a bunch of insect that are taking of the bouquet of flowers in the foreground.

Unfinished Business

Day 4
A Google search result for typing in: when will i showing "when will i die" as the top search result.

When Will I?

Day 3
A triptych of 3 similar images above each other displaying a grid of Google image search results of a man grabbing a steak out of the fridge. Overlayed are cartoon drawings of a stick figure slipping on a banana peel, a giant foot and two guys laughing at the stick figure. On the top image a yellow bell pepper lays on top of the image, in the middle on there's blue berries on top of the image, and the bottom one has black berries on top of it.

Food For Thought

Day 2
An image of a stainless steel prison food tray on top of a geometric patterned fabric. On the tray, it has carvings of a bunch of grapes and a heart with an arrow through it saying J+R referring to Romeo & Juliet. On the metal tray, there are 3 green peas of which one is resting on a fork on the side of the tray.

Mug Shot

Day 1
A GIF with a static photo background of a forest with a circle of trash cans on top of it spinning around in a circle like a loading icon infinitely.

Utter Trash