Subversive Art

Helmut Smits is a young Dutch multidisclipinary visual artist and designer. His works are often dubbed as subversive and display a strong reaction to contemporary life. In his works Smits questions and plays with the form of recognizable objects, brands or situations, thus placing those everyday things and activities into new contexts, hence granting them a completely new meaning. The questionable quality of some ubiquitous products, the image of the USA or latent criticism of the (un)aware world and wars are but a few of the themes the author sometimes uses in his sculptures, pictures and contemplations.

Smits says of himself and his work that he strives towards facilitating autonomous thinking in independent designers as well as stimulating applied thinking in artists, while his works should be able to facilitate both in the general public.

We have singled out a few of his most interesting works, for example the device that filters water from Coca-Cola, while you can view the rest of Smits’ works at the author’s newly constructed, official web page.

The Real Thing, 2006. / Foto: Rick Messemaker

Full Colour, 2008. / CMYK non alchocolic drinks (Cyan – Gatorade Cool Blue, Magenta – Fernandes Cherry Bouquet, Yellow – Orangeade, Black – Coca-Cola) Foto: Lotte Stekelenburg and FW