Testbeeld

The colourful artwork on the ceiling will not mean anything to many young people, but those coming from a certain time will recognise the test pattern from the past with a smile. Iwan Smit, the creator of “Testbeeld”, studied illustration and visual arts at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, the place where he was born in 1989. His work veers between heavy themes and playful lightness. This results in colourful paintings and objects, sometimes with a dark edge. He incorporates experiences from his life in his creations, such as the anxiety disorders he suffered during his youth.

For “Testbeeld”, Smit went back to his youth. In the olden days when TV channels did not broadcast 24-7, a test image was broadcast when there was no TV content scheduled. It was a still image with boxes, stripes and colours to help you set up the screen perfectly.

Smit says about “Testbeeld”: “When I watched television as a child, you would see the test image regularly. I found it annoying, generally because I was waiting for the cartoons to start. My father told me that the image was the man in the TV setting up the next episode for me. This created a bond between me and the test image. I fantasised about a little robot in the television, busy changing video tapes. With the advent of digital television and the disappearance of cable, a piece of functional graphic design became redundant. This artwork is an ode to the test image. Lost, but not forgotten and set in the heart of our media capital Hilversum.”