ISABEL VAN DER LAAN

Art seems to have no direct function in a home. You can’t (usually) eat off of art, sit on it or use it to keep your drinks cool. Still, a home is not fully a home without art. A student’s room isn’t finished without a film poster, the walls of a new child’s room are too bare without a framed illustration, the millionaire’s pad is incomplete without a statement piece. Why is it that, when all furniture is in place, we use art as the finishing touch of our places to live in?

 

A home is like a mind. It is that which is hidden from the outside, from others. It is unlike streets, offices or stores that are created to accommodate the masses. Everyone can, in some way or another, live in these spaces and use them. A home is made for only one or a few people. Here everything can live that we want to, regardless of other’s opinions or tastes, and we invite only the ones we want to. Like in a mind thoughts and opinions can live freely, so can live taste and preferences in a home. 

 

I think it is one of the most beautiful ways to live as humans when we don’t only shape our environment to our needs, but especially to our liking. Shaping our environment to our liking allows for the expression of passion, emotion, individual taste, which are all the things that bring out the parts in us that feel alive. A home is the most intimate expression of ourselves in space that we can find. Seeing our own tastes expressed in our own interior feels free and can provide relaxation in a room we have total control over. It allows us to connect with our deepest desires, wishes and aesthetic preferences, which may not always be present in the outside world.

 

The sole function of art in an interior is to feel. Different artists bring different feelings with their work. The world offers an incredible range of feelings to bring into your home.