Hard//hoofd gives a podium to writers and artists for experimentation and development. They just published their first offline magazine and asked me to make two illustrations for an essay written by Rijk Kistemaker who writes about self-mockery in the gay community.
The image of the fool came to me almost immediately when I read the text.
I wanted the fool to wear a regular coat to further enhance the contrast with the clownesk hat, and to represent the dual identity that gays often take on to cope with the outside 'heterosexual' world. Self-mockery as a shield.
The turtles refer to the title and to a specific part in the text.
The second image published inside the text continues the atmosphere of the opening illustration but uses the theatrical 'laugh/cry' masks as inspiration.
