Copy Paste

Hester van Tongerlo’s solo exhibition ‘Copy Paste’ is about mankind and their copy behaviour of themselves and their environment. Hester tries to question and answer whether we are unique personalities, and whether individual identity even exists.

"In my work, I am trying to understand mankind. There are many things we copy and we almost never ask ourselves why we do things in a certain way. We live in a world that is formed by opinions from our surroundings. I believe that we, as humans, are a reflection of our environment.

"I started to reflect upon this notion. If we are our environment, I am curious to see if people get to know me better just by looking at my environment instead of me as a person.
Do the surroundings tell more about something than the object itself, in this case me? If your environment gives more information than you as a person do, than do you have your own identity or are you a reflection of your surroundings?

"In my practice, I try to pinpoint the notion of identity and the way we are seemingly programmed to copy others. In the first place I did so by coping a picture of myself until I lost my own identity and blended in with the surroundings.

"In this internet-filled world, identity is not just part of the physical world. A digital identity does also exist. On social media we show who we are and what we stand for. An example is the pictures people post of their feet in autumn leaves. Before 2010 almost nobody did this, nowadays Instagram is filled with these sort of pictures. On 11.11.2016 271 people thought they posted a unique and creative picture, when in fact they all posted the same. People copy behaviour without even knowing where it came from.

"By researching mankind in all my works, I'm trying to find answers. Answers to the question why we behave like we do and what the reasons are for this. Are we that autonomous or are we just a herd of animals that copy to survive?"