Handiedan is a female artist from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Although she produces art works in a variety of media, I’ve chosen to showcase her creative collages of vintage pin up girls. Each collage is an exhibit of sexuality and sensuality. Her designs are a combination of organic curves created by the shapes of the women’s bodies contrasted with the highly decorative edgings of currency notes and pictures frames.
There is a controversial aspect to Handiedan’s work. By combining money and sex in one image, the collages comment on the sex industry, the loss of traditional feminine ideals and the promiscuity of modern woman. The collages show scantily clad and often nude women staring out sensually at the viewer, pouting their lips and posing in a seductive way. Although such images seem almost innocent to modern eyes, they represent the sexuality of a woman’s body, and the ideals of beauty that men impose on the female form.
The artist has hidden her own opinions in the collage paintings by rewriting the text on the paper money in the background. In one example, she has used an American ten dollar bill, overwriting “United States of America” with “United Taste of Miracle.”
Phone Booth Gallery had this to say about Handiedan’s art works, “Handiedan’s collage work feeds on the tainted history of pin-up girl posters, using torn, aged surfaces to subvert sexiness. At first glance, the images have a nostalgic feeling, fueled by their ornate details and seemingly straightforward compositions, but a closer look quickly reveals their brutality.” It’s true that under the soft, feminine flesh of the women displayed there is a darker element that runs through Handiedan’s collages. The decorative backgrounds can be viewed as either detailed or chaotic. The noise of the design is becomes the equivalent of a visual scream. In many of the collages, the pin up girls’ body parts are rearranged, reaching through the body of another woman or twisted into painful, contorted positions.
To see more art and photography by the artist Handiedan, visit handiedan.com
