With Hallowe’en coming up at the end of the month, we thought you’d like some fancy dress costume ideas… No. No we didn’t, in fact this is Jan Pieter Kaptein introducing the characters from his art school assignment The Second-Self Laboratory, which is being exhibited as part of Dutch Design Week 2013. Kaptein was released from the care of graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven this year, and the laboratory was his final .
Visitors to the lab are invited to try on the costumes, which are distillations of archetypal characters from literature and mythology, and see what comes over them. Among the choices are Cursed Man (a pariah with a bad case of something contagious), The Monster (big on brawn, small on brains) and The Stranger (not from around here, to say the least). Who hasn’t wanted to catch measles, wear their underwear on the outside and ride an alien around a warehouse? Just us? Whatevs. Behind the Frank Sidebottom tomfoolery, Kaptein is making a point about how wearing masks and dressing in a certain way can alter not only how others react to the wearer, but how the wearer themselves behave too, down to the way they perform the simplest actions. For your chance to become someone else, visit the laboratory as part of the Self Unself exhibition at Design Academy Eindhoven before 27 October, or Van Abbemuseum before 17 November.
@jp_kaptein
@DAEnews
@vanabbemuseum
Photo, Lisa Klappe
Photo, Conor Trawinski
Photo, Jet Sennema
Photo, Conor Trawinski
Photo, Lisa Klappe
Photo, Jet Sennema
Photo, Conor Trawinski
Photo, Lisa Klappe
