Obsessive selfishness, 2026
Wood
3 Part: 5 cm x 34,5 cm x 22 cm
Artist’s Statement
Obsessive selfishness is a series of three utensils with handles that fit the artist’s hand and no other. The handles are made to mimic the artist’s hand and provide a comfortable grip for them and them alone. They accomplish this through maintaining the manner of grips the artist uses to hold utensils and moulds around their hand perfectly.
This series explores selfishness in the direction of making things that the artist will not and cannot share with others. The deliberate moulding to the hand ensures that anyone else who attempts to hold them will be unable to hold them comfortably and will feel either a stretching of the fingers in unnatural ways or hotspots where edges catch their skin. It forces the viewer to accept that these utensils are not made for them. The creation of these utensils forces the artist to become obsessed with the shape of their hand, as they require a meticulousness and days of fine-tuning to their respective shape.
Kameeldoring wood is a deliberate choice for each handle due to its extreme hardness and difficult workability. Its stubborn characteristics are a reflection of the artist’s own. Obsessive selfishness exposes the artist’s obsession with wood as a material and acts as a visualisation to how the artist moulds the material to their will, but also how the material moulds the artist as well.
