Reflections of hope

March 2025

Client

The assignment was set by the Creative Research minor at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). This minor focuses on learning what creative research methods are, how to use and implement them in larger-scale studies.

Project

The assignment was to answer a personal question by taking inspiration from an art piece. With class, we visited the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. There, I saw a performance video by Julianknxx titled Shifting | Spirit | Time, which explores memory and cultural heritage through repetition, sound, and ancestral echoes. I took it as inspiration to answer my personal question: What do I want to do in the future?

First, I wrote down a question I wanted to ask myself for this research, which you can see on the green page above. Then, I went to the museum where I found the performance installation, I described what I saw and how it made me feel. On the images you can also see some other works that I found interesting, but unfortunately didn’t catch me like the performance.

I then wrote down some prompts describing what the inspirational art piece has and who I want to include in my art piece—elements that are present in my inspiration artwork and could be connected to it in a meaningful way. After that, I made several sketches to conceptualize and explore what might fit those prompts. Eventually, I decided to draw poppies, as a symbol of personal growth.

The answer to the question I had asked myself turned out to be this: “It doesn’t matter what I want to do or who I want to become. As long as I’m happy and true to myself, and I move at my own pace on the highway of life, I will reach my destination eventually.

The photo above shows my art piece who I presented at school. Telling about my inspirational art piece from the museum and the part of personal growth and that it doesn’t matter who I become as long as I am happy.