The Daily Slice: Rebuilding the Pin-up

The world is overflowing with beautiful and interesting things competing for our attention, and if you live in the real world, it’s a tall task to include appreciating the hell out of art on a daily basis. Really, who can find the time? That’s why Guy.com offers a “daily slice.” It’s a small taste of what’s going on in the world of art and design–something we find beautiful or inspiring or worthy of a peek. We’re happy to serve it up.

Handiedan

Handiedan is a young artist from the Netherlands who is now living and working in Amsterdam under her strange handle. The word “Handiedan” is a nickname she made up herself, a combination of a shortened version of her first name, and two other words that make up a cute rhyme in Dutch. It’s lost on English speakers. To us, she’s “Handy Dan.”

© Handiedan

You could use either the word “artist” or “designer” to describe Handiedan at work. These are collages, but many of the design elements are planned out digitally on her laptop first, before she begins tearing into the rare vintage papers and cards that she gets from local flea markets and old buildings. The pin-up ladies you see are appropriated from the work of Elvgren, a very popular pin-up artist from the late 1930′s to the early 70′s.

© Handiedan

Part of what’s interesting about these works is that they are as much object as they are image. The images are available by themselves as prints, but the real work of art belongs in a frame that is carefully selected for its subject. Handiedan is a kind of curator for special objects from the past whether it’s the frame, old Chinese papers, postage stamps, cigar bands, rusty nails, playing cards, or deconstructed Spanish fans among other things. Her work stands alone beautifully as flat images, but the dimension of the materials on top of each other as well as the frames are something to be noted and appreciated along with the obviously strong aesthetic value of the images the collages create.

© Handiedan

The obvious sexual nature of her work combined with the destruction of the female form could probably fuel ten feminists and five theorists for a few months straight, but Handiedan addresses most of it herself, saying:

“I think it’s a pity that sexuality stays a sort of an issue and taboo in all times. The constant discussion of what is normal and matching it with the daily standards and values. Sexuality and humanity are two things which cannot go without each other and sexual expressions are everywhere, even if you are aware of it or not. Not being balanced in all different ways results in bad things I guess. And expression helps with finding balance, for the mind and the body.”
Source

© Handiedan

Her work is a fresh lens — a kaleidoscope of sorts through which we can see the past. Seeing many fragments come together into one pleasing image is the result of the postmodern symphony that Handiedan conducts for us.

What does the work mean? Well, it depends on how you want to look at it. They can either be pleasing images and nothing more, or they can be a commentary on any of their single elements. The process of making these images and the relationship the artist has with the materials also tells its own story. That’s the beauty of art — it can inform us if we want it to. It can prompt us to ask intriguing questions, like why are many of the female’s faces gone? What about the juxtaposition of money and sexuality? Why are materials that are symbolically domestic, like wallpaper and cookbook pages combined with symbols of male freedom such as cigar bands? Why is it important that only old items are used? The more questions you can ask about a piece of work add layers of depth that can make the experience deep and enjoyable. But don’t forget that the work can also help us enter an interstitial space (the space between things, kind of where we feel lost) where we simply relax and look and enjoy looking with no agenda at all. It’s all up to you.