If You Can’t Be Good, Be Weird, 2016
If You Can’t Be Good, Be Weird consists of four paintings in which artist Daan Roukens further explores his search for the tensions within his obsessive perfectionism. In each of these works, he deliberately used tape in the first layer, precisely because of the risk that paint might seep underneath it. After this initial layer, he began rebuilding the pattern without tape by adding the same or new colours in different areas of the canvas.
The differentiated pattern and the use of black and white forced him to continually rework the painting. It is the obsessive perfectionist in him that seeks to maintain control, but by embracing experimentation, that cycle is broken. During the painting process, Roukens lowered the pattern by 1 cm, thereby creating a new “square-on-square” pattern.
Painting #2 follows the same technique as the first painting, but the original pattern was twice as large, allowing three different layers to overlap. Originally, painting #1 and #1.5 formed a single piece, but after an experiment in which one half was painted white and the other black, he decided to separate them.
To further expand the experiment, Roukens added oil paint in the final layers instead of acrylic. Due to the transparency of the oil, the underlying layers remain visible, enabling him once again to break away from his perfectionism.
Glenfiddich: Experimental Series
2016
Wallpaper and textile
3.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 m
Commissioned
To introduce Glenfiddich’s new whisky flavours, Daan Roukens was commissioned to design an experience room in Amsterdam as part of a tasting event. He created a space that was completely covered with his painting If You Can’t Be Good, Be Weird #1.
Roukens’ work revolves around the interplay between order and chaos, and the continual breaking and re-creating of patterns. This is expressed not only through the use of contrasting colours and the release of control, but also on a conceptual level. Both new flavours were developed by deliberately breaking the traditional rules of whisky making. Roukens translated this principle into his art by breaking the painting as an object itself. He digitised the canvas and used it to cover the entire space, as well as to design a matching T-shirt for visitors to wear during the tasting.
By transforming the painting into wallpaper and textile, he draws the viewer even deeper into the experience of his abstract self-portraits and the new flavours.