Sven 't Jolle
(c)image: M HKA
De betere klasse heeft ook recht op ontspanning: jong en onwetend en arbeider met ballonmuts , 1998
The moneyed class also has a right to entertainment: young and ignorant and worker with balloon-shaped hat.
"The enjoyment of art remains a class-bound pastime.".
An outspoken opinion that is present throughout the oeuvre of Sven ’t Jolle, and in The better classes also have the right to recreation is made quite explicit in both word and image. In this work, the artist confronts two sculptures with one other, each seeming archetypes of the middle- and working classes. A fire-red Worker with Newsboy cap in polyester is represented as a chubby dummy without arms or legs. This ‘worker’ reminds one of a figure from table-football, perhaps a metaphor for the worker as a plaything in the economic game. On the other side are two copper-green plaster figures, looking with surprise at the red worker in his cap. The plaster-cast couple harks back to the small decorative sculptures found in middle-class homes. The tacit mutual feelings congeal in eloquent sculptures, which need no words.