Holy Speculoos* Addictees!
We’re not going to waffle on in our newsletter intro friends. No “it’s been ages”, no “how is it already June?”, no “how is it possible to grow a grey hair there?”, no “I can’t believe it’s not butter” - well you should, because it isn’t. Can you even get that stuff anymore? Wait! We’re waffling…
It all started with waffles (the eating kind), fries, chocolate and beer. Now, Belgium has given us Virginie Pringiers – supermamma, rock music fan, Japanese tin toy collector and the newest addition to the Addicted family.
Recycled, repurposed, reimagined – Virginie’s art includes anything and everything from pages of vintage magazines, keyrings, photos, the odd badge and even UltraMan… “UltraMan (UltraMan) here he comes from the sky…”
Virginie's work is distinguished by her bold passion for the lost and found, the forgotten and remembered, the iconic and the cosmic. Her first Singapore art series, Not Holding Out For A Hero, explores our desire to be saved, and rescues herself at the same time.
While the superheroes central to Virginie’s artwork encourage the viewer to follow, to join, to escape, to move to the moon, to find a better place, they’re really calling us to a better frame of mind.
The messages can also be dark. However, with her carefully chosen colour schemes, characters, slogans in Chinese or Singlish (Singapore English), inclusion of small objects found during her travels, each canvas has a touch of humour - inspired by Virginie's own experience and life in Singapore (soon to be Belgium once again).
"When you see my work, you can find humour, you can find something childlike. But I think there is always something a little violent too. The things I can't yell or cry about in real life seem to come out in my painting." – Virginie Pringiers
We hear you sister!
If you'd like to learn more about Virginie, click here.
Let’s get into the artwork Addictees. Grab yourself a bowl of anguilles au vert - eels in green sauce (according to the cntraveler website this is one of 10 food reasons to go to Belgium), turn up the volume on Belgian rock band Irish Coffee, sit back in your La-Z-Boy and get your power scrolling finger ready to swipe up.
Episode XII
Arty-Fact: “The flag of the Empire of the Rising Sun, a harmless toy, we are in a fictional story where the characters live in a playful world. I cannot help being amused by toys from the past, re-igniting my childhood imagination to conjure up multiple new worlds, full of galactic epics with more outlandish heroes, each one crazier than the last.” ~ Virginie Pringiers
Fuck! We Are Going To The Moon!
Arty-Fact: “This old picture was found in a Singaporean flea market. The photo shows us people who laid a foundation for our own stories - people who everyone may have forgotten. They are deconstructed with faces torn apart and partly disappearing below the painting. Their trip into space for a new colony has never been so timely. It’s a good way to stop sinking into oblivion and start something new.” ~ Virginie Pringiers
Mr. President
Arty-Fact: “I created this painting in response to what I was feeling about current global events shaping western society. I felt like an alien had come from outer space to guide us into a new era. What I like about the face is its lack of emotion - the emptiness of the eyes. It is impossible for us to know what the future will be.” ~ Virginie Pringiers
New Army
Arty-Fact: “I have a personal cause that I’m fighting for. In recent years, I have been able to rally other people who are fighting for the exact same outcome - to create a better life for children in need. Armies, as scary as they might seem, are groups of people fighting for the same ideals, feeling empowered by each other, able to affect change through collective strength and achieve their desired outcome. I am part of this army.” ~ Virginie Pringiers
Come With Me! NOW
Arty-Fact: “Another call to travel... but this one takes me to an unlikely place, the ultimate ballad from which we never come back, a one-way ticket. Space, artificial paradise, death... I still don’t really understand what I am being called for.” ~ Virginie Pringiers
Awake
Arty-Fact: “’This is a dream state - though we were wide awake’. These lyrics from a beloved song make me wonder if we really live our lives or if we need to be touched by the beautiful look of a woman to feel wide awake. I contemplate every single moment of my life, from all angles, and try to be that person on the canvas who tells my loved ones to always stay wide awake.” ~ Viriginie Pringiers
George
Arty-Fact: George, a 45-year-old well waxed male, is an extremely ordinary man. He loves his wife, but she is ordinary, his children - are ordinary, his work - is ordinary... his life is extraordinarily sad. One day, George decides to throw a fit. He lets go of his ‘ordinary’ and dives head first into gambling, drugs and violence... he decides to live in total excess. Actually no... George is not capable of excess - his gun shoots only love songs. George is delightfully ordinary.
“The emblem on the chest is a shooting star
With the pride-worthy jet shoot the enemy
From the land of light for our sakes (sakes as in ‘for goodness sake’ – not sake as in ‘gimme sake and make it a double’)
He has come our UltraMan!”
Sing along now!
Until the next one…
Blair & El
It’s a shine of one million watts!
* Belgium’s (unofficial) national cookie