Have Faith
Have Faith (In Wordless Knowledge)
2009
H 1189 x W 841 mm
5 colour screenprint on 120 grams/m2 Natronkraft paper
20 signed and numbered prints out of 70 prints total
Aloha Shirts typically depict the lifestyle of Hawaii: palmtrees, the surf, beautiful Hula-girls, and… volcanoes. How the Aloha industry came into being can be read in Dale Hope’s The Aloha Shirt, Spirit of the Islands (here in the 2002 Thames & Hudson edition).
You can imagine my surprise when I ran into this gentleman on the streets of Amsterdam in 2002. He told me he had received this shirt as a present from his brother in Turkey. The design depicts a nightly arctic scene sky with stars and moons, and the head of a wolf or husky. I’ve kept this photo for years, waiting for an opportunity to use it somehow.
In the meantime I’d become fascinated by related subject matter: the graphic representation of ice, ‘ICE’ type on fridges you’ll find in any american gasstation.
Driving through the US, I usually buy the Little Tree Air Freshener to ‘personalise’ my rental cars. Until recently, I innocently assumed ‘Black Ice‘ had something to do with luxury goods and coctails. Only recently I found out it’s a natural phenomenon that’s a serious wintertime hazard to drivers… Does ice have a smell anyway?
Giving a workshop + lecture at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) in september 2009, seemed the right occasion to use the aloha-husky.
The poster announes my activities at the college, while touching on the problem of global warming in a loose way.
Ola ‘Raketje‘ (Rocket) has been around als long as I can remember, and still one of the most succesful popsicles in Holland. Design Classic!
Adobe Illustrator enabling control of many layers and elements.
When all ingredients are in their proper place, it’s time to take everything apart, and split into colour separations.
Two out of five colour separations printed on transparent paper for final check up.
The fish-guy in the upper left corner, is a mascotte of Salmon River RV Park in Oregon, painted by a local artist. His name: Sammy the Salmon.
Trying to get the color-mix right…
Lonely MCAD student, lonely poster, lonely campus…
And the title of this elaborate piece of work was inspired by another beautiful song from the unsurpassed singer/songwriter Bill Callahan. It’s called ‘From the rivers to the oceans’ from the album Woke on a Whaleheart (Drag City).