Pum van de Koppel (1999)
is not very brave.
He is often unable to cross on a red light even though he would want to. He is occupied by rules and uses his art practice to negotiate this paralysis. It serves as a tool to investigate our social codes from an autistic perspective. A perspective from which mundane objects and mannerisms turn theatrical. The stage, which an exhibition or a sheet of paper provides, in turn then becomes a site to play and perform around the (unwritten) rules of societal expectations, social interaction and the art world.
By trying to conform to the shapes that our society prescribes, staged in a theatrical decor, the uncomfortable course of events is instrumentalized to make apparent how our conventions are artificial.
With his privilege of being permitted to attempt and fail he has the ambition to unlock a potential in the viewer to challenge their inherited normality by demonstrating an antagonistic and vulnerable proposition that champions a clumsy aesthetic.
He is often unable to cross on a red light even though he would want to. He is occupied by rules and uses his art practice to negotiate this paralysis. It serves as a tool to investigate our social codes from an autistic perspective. A perspective from which mundane objects and mannerisms turn theatrical. The stage, which an exhibition or a sheet of paper provides, in turn then becomes a site to play and perform around the (unwritten) rules of societal expectations, social interaction and the art world.
By trying to conform to the shapes that our society prescribes, staged in a theatrical decor, the uncomfortable course of events is instrumentalized to make apparent how our conventions are artificial.
With his privilege of being permitted to attempt and fail he has the ambition to unlock a potential in the viewer to challenge their inherited normality by demonstrating an antagonistic and vulnerable proposition that champions a clumsy aesthetic.
Currently Pum van de Koppel is investigating the image of professionality. He uses performance and drawing to give form to the longing for being a 'normal' member of society - normal in the Dutch meaning of the word; productive, efficient and neurotypical; With enough room for his imagination to then for example sit behind a desk as an office worker at the Ministry of Finance, to work as a manager at the academy, or to give a lecture as a successful student.
In the end of course he is failing in all these regards while prioritizing the attempt over a desired result. By being too intimidated to actually contact the Ministry of Finance on LinkedIn, or by the wobbly foundation of his graduation work that tumbles down and that he then has to reconstruct, or by being mute during his lecture and being interrupted by a dog while also chasing my presentation diagrams which are stained with coffee and blown away by the wind.
This romantic process of imagining, performing, embodying and failing turns out to be the core aspect of his practice: honesty and its absurd humour.
In the end of course he is failing in all these regards while prioritizing the attempt over a desired result. By being too intimidated to actually contact the Ministry of Finance on LinkedIn, or by the wobbly foundation of his graduation work that tumbles down and that he then has to reconstruct, or by being mute during his lecture and being interrupted by a dog while also chasing my presentation diagrams which are stained with coffee and blown away by the wind.
This romantic process of imagining, performing, embodying and failing turns out to be the core aspect of his practice: honesty and its absurd humour.
In 2023 Pum van de Koppel got a Bachelors in Fine Arts at the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague, The Netherlands and in 2021 went on exchange to the Site-specific Art department at Die Angewandte in Vienna, Austria.
Besides his artistic practice, he plays in a band, plays records and is a founding member of the kabk student union.