Through the Lens VI

Dennis Vanderbroeck

www.dennisvanderbroeck.com

Year of Birth: 1990


Where are you currently living?

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

What kind of creative work are you most interested in making?

 Having a Bachelor's degree in Performance Art and a Master's in Fine Art, I create crossovers with fashion, fine art and performance art, using video, photography and live performance as my main media.

It's Lonely at the Top

What elements of your life inspired you to pursue your creativity?  Was there a turning point or an event that made you want to become something?

For as long as I can remember, I was always constructing and creating things. From having a "label" with my best friend when we were 14, to making photographs with home-made garments and even before that playing Tina Turner in my grandparents living room. It was a fluid process without a specific turning point.

Do you have an artistic intention, focus, or message that you try to convey?

All my bodies of work evolve around the complexity of identity and the construction and deconstruction of it.  Being extremely fascinated by popular culture and celebrity culture, I am exploring how to perform life and how to mythologize yourself. By blurring the labels between my personal and artistic identity, I create hyper aesthetic images. I use wit and humour to create playful procedures.

Dennis For Sale, 2015

This is a documentation of my most recent performance and graduation piece at Central Saint Martins entitled: Dennis For Sale.

Standing on a rotating platform, displaying the constructed identity of the artist: Dennis. A guard consistently sits next to the body of work. As soon as Dennis, the artist, fails to stay in character and becomes Dennis, the individual, the guard closes the plastic see-through curtain with the phrase: "The artist failed to stay in character but will be back soon". When Dennis, the individual, is ready to display Dennis, the artist again, the curtain opens again for a new attempt.


How do you meet and collaborate with like-minded people?

Like minded people are everywhere and therefore you meet them along the way, during performances, universities, parties, you name it.

In my studio, collaboration is key, since I balance between these different artistic fields and because I tend to believe that it suits our current artistic landscape.

A good example is my ongoing project entitled: The D-construction Collaborations. With this project, I ask established fashion designers to customize one of my blue D-jumpers.

How do you think the internet and social media can benefit creatives like you?


I think it can benefit your exposure if you use it in a smart way.

Thoughts on social media and anonymity?

I try to use social media by embracing it. With my "this selfie should justify my existence"- project I was questioning our constructed virtual identities with the use of Facebook. I tend not to approach it as a good or bad thing.  However, the concept of social media is extremely fascinating. I much more like to question it than judge it.

Website? Social Media?

www.dennisvanderbroeck.com