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    Willem Van Hooff

    Willem Van Hooff

    1. Where were you born and where are you from ?

    Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?

    In Eindhoven there is every year the Dutch Design week, My parrants showed me around on the dutch design week, and it made a huge impression on me.

    3. Have you always worked in the art/design field ?

    I work now in the art/design field for only 2 years, I graduated 2 years ago.
    Before I had a site job at a creative restaurant working as a waiter but also making the hole interior of the place.

    4. What led you to the design creation ?

    I think it’s a fascination to the world, on holliday’s I always love to discover new places, new buildings, new materials. Be suprised by them how the planet is growing materials how humans have worked with them is something which I love.

    5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?

    Everything starts from this fascination, looking at my surroundings and wondering. Then I have a phase were I just need to have a lot of joy, I even think you can call this phase naive or even better stupid! But in the end that is how I can create new ideas.
    The last phase is probably the hardest part, but that is why you can call it design. You need to work with the material and give it the right proportions, so the object gets his functions. But in that step I really don’t wanna loose all the freedom and fun that I experience in making.

    6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?

    I have a studio in Eindhoven which is like 10 minutes to bike to, but I like to take a longer route trough the nature about 25minutes.
    To get my body active and to start thinking, then I share a huge hall with 10 people were we all have our individual spot.
    I make each week a list of things I need to finish, and this keeps me pretty focused on my job.
    I work on my projects and plan time for experimenting with new ideas. My main occupation is on working hands on on my ceramics. But I also wanne work with new materials, I’m now experimenting a lot with metal. To create a free way of shaping with this very solid and manufactured material.

    7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?

    I don’t want to specialize on specific materials, I like to work with all of them. But I hold on to my thoughts were I like to see design as a tool to express a story. A story that makes u wonder about materials and the culture attached to them or the techniques that they have already been shaped with.

    8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?

    I use premitive techniques to shape them, mostly with my own hands. Which gives u a lot of freedom, and I miss that in this mass consumerism world.

    9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?

    My advice would be to dear. For me that has payed off, I have applied to a lot of things that I thought was never reachable, and also with a lot of joy. I just went in with a idea that I had absolutely nothing to lose.

    10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?

    A good mix of all of them.

    11. What designers have influenced you ?

    Max Lamb, Nacho carbonell

    12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?

    I really like 2 german guys that call themselves bnag, work with a lot of fun.
    Also a danish ceramicist called Karl monies, who I have met in the beginning of this year and really inspired me.

    13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?

    14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?

    Expressive design made with a historical background.

    15. Is there anything you would like to add ?

    Proust Questionnaire with very short answers (one or a few words) :
    (The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust. Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)

    1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

    A silly day in the sun.

    2. What is your greatest fear?

    Dying

    3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

    Accept everybody for who they are.

    4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

    Empathy

    5. Which living person do you most admire?

    Grayson Perry

    6. What is your greatest extravagance?

    I like to ask a lot of weird questions.

    7. What is your current state of mind?

    I don’t want to sit inside anymore I want to make something weird and fun!

    8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

    Likes on social media

    9. What is the quality you most like in a man?

    Caring

    10. What is the quality you most like in a woman?

    Caring

    11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

    A lot of curse words

    12. Which talent would you most like to have?

    A talent to be very Impulsive

    13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

    I would change that I worry to much.

    14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

    How I developed my personality.

    15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

    North Italy, in my own build house in the mountains.

    16. Where would you most like to live?

    A chessboard my grandfather made.

    17. What is your most treasured possession?

    People mistreating other people

    18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

    19. What is your favorite occupation?

    Camping

    20. What is your most marked characteristic?

    Being a sweet with rude humor

    21. What do you most value in your friends?

    Accepting everybody who they are.

    22. Who are your favorite writers?

    Juan cornella

    23. Who is your hero of fiction?

    Rick sanchez

    24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

    Jim Morrison

    25. Who are your heroes in real life?

    Jim Morrison, Mac Demarco, Max Lamb

    26. What are your favorite names?

    Pelle, Tibbe

    27. What is it that you most dislike?

    Arrogance

    28. What is your greatest regret?

    That I should have done more impulsive trips.

    29. How would you like to die?

    Very silly, I’m old and trying to pick a apple from a three but I fell over on my face…..

    30. What is your motto?

    Learn to Forget.

    191115 - Willem van Hooff - Core Vases1738
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    191115 - Willem van Hooff - Core Vases1913

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