HAPPY KUNST GARDEN

Buddha statues are everywhere in Europe, having undergone a shift in meaning to become a symbol of happiness rather than their original mean- ing/function. Bom has researched the consumption phenomenon of ‘happy’ images to understand society and the era. She claims the contem- porary industries that sell the notion of happiness through domestic objects imprint excessive positivity on society and the people.

Both tapestry art and Buddha sculpting, historically considered luxury and time-consuming art forms in Europe and Asia respectively, have been streamlined with modern technology, taking significantly less time to produce. By intertwining comparable art forms from Europe and Asia, garden decorations that symbolise happiness including Buddha images seamlessly woven into the tapestry. The tapestry design is reminiscent of a flyer advertising low-cost happy products, to question what happiness is for you.

*Kunst has dual meaning in Dutch/German; Art and Artificial.