Bad
Something is swirling in the air here, estrogen and testosterone; shameless and bold. I found this graffiti deep in Otrobanda. You can imagine the dancehall where African style is danced, with bubbling and daggering. Boy Meets Girl. Europeans are a bit more reserved, though Nietzsche came up with a word for it: Dionysian. Dionysus was […]
La Tasca
You can just make out the letters. It says “La Tasca,” which turns out to have been a nightclub where Trago girls worked. These are girls forced into prostitution. The two owners of the club were convicted of human trafficking and employing illegal workers. A few police officers who were fond of visiting the club […]
The Queen
This is how she looks: majestic, regal. The effect is heightened because she’s mirrored, like the face cards in a deck of playing cards. The fact that she had no lower lip made me want to create one from the upper lip as well. In a deck of cards, she’s also a “lady,” because that’s […]
Symbols
An intriguing image; a woman holding a rooster in her hand with arrows in her shoulder. The rooster carries many meanings: vigilance, lust, and betrayal. The arrows in both shoulders are a symbol of the martyr Saint Sebastian. That’s why I think the rooster symbolizes betrayal. She has been betrayed and sacrificed, but remains innocent. […]
Mr. Cool
I found this graffiti deep in Otrobanda, a neighborhood that used to be much less safe than it is now. This man doesn’t seem to care about that, though. He looks weathered and a bit worn, but stares ahead with determination and without fear. And he’s wearing an incredibly cool pair of sunglasses, hence the […]
The whole world
When you ask a Surinamese or Antillean person about their ancestry, you usually get a long list of ethnicities: Creole, Dutch, Chinese, Indian, Indigenous. I see that reflected in the face of this beautiful woman as well. Mostly Creole, of course, but also a bit of Dutch and, oddly enough, Indigenous. I once visited the […]
Unashamed
He looks at you in a way that only children can: open and unashamed, with 100% curiosity, but also with a hint of, “Well, come on then, what are you going to do?” The boy is the work of Garrick Marchena, who I consider a master of graffiti due to the powerful impact of his […]
Bud
This is a man from another era. His eyes are squinted in a sharp, intense glare. At first, I thought this face came straight out of the film classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a 1966 spaghetti western with brilliant music composed by Ennio Morricone. This would be “The Ugly,” one of the […]
Typical Dutch
In the Netherlands, we have lots of rules and regulations, but we’re not always so strict about enforcing them. I notice this a bit because I work a lot with addicts and sometimes with young ex-offenders. We have laws, but we also try to be practical. I think this is a perfect example of that: […]
Boemannetjes
They look friendly, but they aren’t. If you hang these little creatures in a child’s room, the child will have a bad night. That instantly tells us what they are: Boemannetjes—creatures that make sure children stop misbehaving or prevent them from going to certain places. Essentially, a tough form of discipline. Boemannetjes are also known […]