SPOTTED: Metropolis M shows Puck Verras' graduation installation, in which they reflects on the hierarchical relationship between humans and non-humans
- Design
Every year, the magazine Metropolis M releases a Graduation Special, featuring work by several alumni who graduated as visual artists. Puck Verras, alumnus of Crossmedia Design, is one of the artists featured in the special. Metropolis M asked the artist the question, "What is the story behind your work?"
When I meet them, Puck Verras (2001) invites me to sit down in an enormous flower, where we face each other on either side of the flower's bud, which consequently recalls a campfire or a glass orb. Verras’ graduation installation The Garden is based on a thought experiment: what if non-humans, such as insects, birds and plants, were to create a garden? Verras explains that it is a reaction against the human tendency to create hierarchy between living beings, which always ends up putting their own needs first. With their installation, they want to challenge the viewer to ask questions about this hierarchical relationship to humans and non-humans
An important theme in their work is caring. Today's world is inundated with problems and a constant stream of all kinds of information. This can lead to a sense of numbness. But Verras wants people to start to feel again, by appealing to wonder and the senses as a source of consolation. It's fine if the formal language is a bit fairytale-like or a bit childish, Verras explains, because that allows them to appeal to a wide audience.
Whilst The Garden functions as an autonomous installation, at the same time it is an interactive decor in which viewers can become part of the garden and can feel insignificant in it. That is not necessarily a negative experience, more an opportunity to cultivate more respect for what is too often regarded as unimportant.
Verras has a background in (amateur) theatre, including at secondary school, and previously did an internship with NEPCO, a company that makes costumes. They describe how Lennart Vader, its founder, would play football with youngsters in the street wearing a chicken costume. That opened Verras’ eyes: if art is truly in the world, you get optimum engagement. They also perform themselves, often in costume, but ultimately they prefer to work behind the scenes, by building worlds that tell stories. They take satisfaction from the small details from which you can sometimes draw a lot of information. Just as a beautiful garden constantly needs to be cared for and maintained, The Garden has clearly been made with a lot of care and attention to detail.
Author: Maarten Buser, poet and art critic