Womankind

A NEW ERA FOR WOMEN

The Dutch path to
happiness
Niksen: the art of
doing nothing
How to accelerate
learning





4

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Antonia Case

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Zan Boag

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Antonia Case

COVER ILLUSTRATION

Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo

DIGITAL

Claudio Faerman

ADMINISTRATION

Marnie Anderson

WRITERS

Niamh Boyce, Jules Evans, Cate Kennedy, Jennifer
Kunst, Jannah Loontjens, Olga Mecking, Clarissa Sebag-
Montefiore, Rachel Morris, Angela Smith

ARTISTS

Monica Barengo, Katy Harrald, Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo,
Hendrik Kerstens

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Jessica Ball, Madeleine Bolle, Hannah Cahill, Bob
Charlton, Kate Crittenden, Piero Cruciatti, Gea
Georgieva, Hendrik Kerstens, Samantha Roche, Sarah
Walker, Wim Wiskerke

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CONTACT

7 Campbell Street, Hobart, Tasmania 7000 Australia

Views expressed by the authors are not those of the
publisher. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited.

Copyright is reserved by the publisher.
Issue 30, ISSN 2203-5850

The Hague, by Wim Wiskerke 5

30

The next step

ANTONIA CASE

Editor-in-Chief, Womankind magazine

If you could wake up tomorrow morn-
ing with a brand-new skill, what would it
be? For example, let’s say you could choose
to master anything you wished - the violin,
speaking Dutch, playing tennis? Which
skill would it be?

Having woken up with this new skill in
your head, what a revelation it would be.
You’d think: “Ah, I can do this perfectly.
What joy, what joy.” But after the initial ex-
citement, you may enter a phase of, “What
next?” Having mastered this skill, there
isn’t a next step because practice won’t
make you any better. You’ve reached the
pinnacle of the skill, and your journey, in a
sense, has ended.

Humans seem to be quite fond of pro-
gression. Incremental gains make us happy.
Improvement gives us a chemical rush. We
love to get better, to work hard, to improve,
to overcome challenges. It explains a lot
about us; why we renovate our homes, work
long hours for a promotion, study advanced
degrees, and so forth.

But it’s easy to forget that it’s the small
rewards from improvement that matter the
most. We can get so fixated on the end prize
that we forget that happiness is what hap-
pens along the way. It’s common to find cou-
ples selling their home not long after com-
pleting a major renovation. Having put the
final touches on the place, they turn to each
other and think, “What next?”

6 20
ART
Contents
Unintentional purpose
5 Editor’s letter
8 womankindmag.com Hendrik Kerstens
10 Womankind Manifesto 86
12 News from nowhere
20 Unintentional purpose PSYCHOLOGY
28 The Dutch way to happiness
32 Niksen: The Dutch art of doing nothing Coming to our senses
36 A matter of essentials
40 Letters from Amsterdam Jules Evans
66 Vincent van Gogh
74 Lost but not found
79 Womankind’s Art & Illustration Award
80 On guilt
86 Coming to our senses
90 Photographers’ Award winners
96 Unfolding the tulip craze
100 Womankind’s Decoration Challenge
108 Cultivating genius in the Dutch golden age
116 The life of art
120 Books
122 Museum of Art & Philosophy (MAP)
126 Subscribe to Womankind
128 George Eliot

7

80 32 28
PHILOSOPHY FLOURISH FLOURISH

On guilt Niksen: Doing nothing The Dutch way to happiness

Jannah Loontjens Olga Mecking Jennifer Kunst

36 40
PSYCHOLOGY PORTRAITS

Letters from Amsterdam

Madeleine Bolle

A Matter of essentials 96 116
ECONOMICS CULTURE
Antonia Case

66
ARTIST

Vincent van Gogh Unfolding the tulip craze The life of art

Niamh Boyce Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore Angela Smith

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9

Writers

Antonia Case: Antonia Case is Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of Womankind, and Editorial Director

of New Philosopher. She was awarded the 2016 AAP Media Professionals’ Award for excellence in the presentation

of philosophy in the media. Her forthcoming book Flourish will be published by Bloomsbury Sigma. Clarissa
Sebag-Montefiore: Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore is a British journalist who lives in New York. She writes for New

Philosopher, The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Statesman, New

Internationalist, The Huffington Post, and Time magazine. Jennifer Kunst: Jennifer Kunst is a clinical psychologist

and psychoanalyst, working in private practice in California. She is a training and supervising analyst at the
Psychoanalytic Center of California and an adjunct associate professor at the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology.

She is the author of Wisdom from the Couch: Knowing and Growing Yourself from the Inside Out. Cate Kennedy: Cate

Kennedy is the author of the novel The World Beneath, which won the People’s Choice Award in the NSW Premier’s
Literary Awards in 2010. She is also the author of a travel memoir, Sing, and Don’t Cry, and the poetry collections
Joyflight, Signs of Other Fires, and The Taste of River Water, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for

Poetry in 2011. Angela Smith: Angela Smith’s essays and poetry have been published in New Philosopher, The

Australian, Overland, and The Best Australian Poems 2015. Her poetry collection, The Geometry of Flight, was published

in 2010. Madeleine Bolle: Madeleine Bolle (1984) is a photographer based in Amsterdam, specialising in

documentary photography. She was selected as New Photo Talent by GUP - the 100 most appealing and upcoming

photography talents from the Netherlands - and was included in the 2018 book edition. Rachel Morris: Rachel

Morris is a freelance writer who lives a nomadic life house-sitting across Europe and the United Kingdom. In 2014 ran
the Academic English program at The Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, the world’s largest women-only

university, based in Saudi Arabia. Jannah Loontjens: Jannah Loontjens is a philosopher, author and poet, with

a PhD from the University of Amsterdam with a dissertation titled Popular Modernism. She is the author of Good Luck
(2007), How Late Actually (2011), But Then Again (2014) and Who Knows (2018). Her poetry collections include
Variants On Now (2002), The Incredible Shrinking (2006), and It’s You (2013). Besides Guilty, her non-fiction includes
the autobiographical philosophy book Roaring Nineties: Or how philosophy changed my life (2016), as well as My Life is
More Beautiful Than Literature (2013) and When it comes to love (2019), a travel story tracing the footsteps of writer

Frida Vogels. Jules Evans: Jules Evans is the author of Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations, which is

published in 19 countries and was a Times book of the year. His second book, The Art of Losing Control, explores how
people find ecstatic experiences in modern western culture. In 2019, he published Holiday From the Self. He helps run
the London Philosophy Club and is a research fellow at a Wellcome Trust-funded project called Living with Feeling,

at the Centre for the History of Emotions, Queen Mary University of London. Angela Smith: Angela Smith’s

writing has been published in Guardian Australia, The Australian, Griffith Review, Meanjin, New Philosopher, and The
Best Australian Poems, among other places.

10

MAGAZINE

Editor’s letter, from
launch issue of

ManifestoWomankindmagazine

What is a ‘good life’?
What makes a life worth living?

It’s the one question that we’d all like to know the answer to, so we could just get
on with it - the living part, that is. If we knew what the ‘good life’ entailed then we
could shun the rest, and just concentrate on the important bits. But society has a
tendency to derail us. We’re repeatedly told that the good life is about making loads
of money, having a successful career and buying as much as we can possibly shovel
into our houses and garages. Some are convinced that they need to be famous and
get their name up in lights for the good life to kick in. It’s worth remembering that
the phase of flight for the Kunanyia stephaniae butterfly lasts a mere 14 days, long
enough for her to find a mate, have a family and watch the cycle of life turn again.
Unlike the butterfly, we are blessed with time. Time is on our side. In the course
of a lifetime, we can move mountains. So, what are we waiting for? We’re proud
to announce Womankind magazine, the first women’s magazine to shun the things
that the mainstream media tell us make for a good life. We like to think that we

can aim higher.

Womankind is funded by subscriptions and sales at its stockists globally. Taking out a subscription of just
over a $1 a week makes an enormous difference for us - protecting the longevity of Womankind magazine

as a guide to high thinking for women - daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers - globally.

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NEWS FROM NOWHERE 12 News

STEALING VERMEER

A woman with an eco-
nomics major from Ox-
ford University became
the first woman to pull
off a major art heist,
with Vermeer’s interior
scene in her trunk.

When Dutch Baroque Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, by Johannes Vermeer, 1670–71
artist Johannes
Vermeer painted When Vermeer died, he was well- kitchen, two in a basement room,
Lady Writing a Let- known in his native Delft, but little and two elsewhere in her home.
ter with her Maid in 1670–1671 from known elsewhere. A local art patron, Upon Magdalena’s death, however,
his house in Delft, the Netherlands, Pieter van Ruijven, had bought the her husband, a bookseller, sold the
little did he know that 300 years majority of his works, even loan- lot in a single auction in Amsterdam.
later, Rose Dugdale, an English PhD ing the painter money on one oc- From that day, the bulk of Vermeers’
graduate in economics, would cut casion. Upon van Ruijven’s death, work disappeared for decades, some
the painting out of its frame with the paintings were bequeathed to his for more than two centuries.
a screwdriver and lug it back to her daughter, Magdalena, who suffered
rented cottage in rural Ireland. some difficulties in finding space to When Rose Dugdale turned up
accommodate the collection, hang- at Russborough House in County
Vermeer is today acknowledged ing 11 Vermeers in her front room, Wicklow, Ireland, Vermeer’s Lady
as one of the greatest painters of the four in her back room, one in the Writing a Letter with her Maid was
Dutch Golden Age, even though hanging proudly alongside a Goya,
only 36 paintings survive, one of
which is Lady Writing a Letter with
her Maid, a radiant interior scene,
typical of Vermeer who painted
most of his works from the front
room of his house in Delft using
the same furniture and decorations,
simply moved about. It is not known
why Vermeer’s oeuvre is so light on
- some suggest that his responsibili-
ties as head of the painters’ guild in
Delft, his duties to his 11 children,
and his work as an art dealer would
have cut into time for painting.

News 13 NEWS FROM NOWHERE

a Gainsborough, and other prized Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid is Russborough House, County Wicklow,
works of art. The owners of the ex- as luminous as ever, now cloistered Ireland, 1826
clusive private art collection hap- within the walls of the National
pened to be at home when Rose Gallery of Ireland.
drove up with three men in tow.
They entered the 200-acre luxury
estate, pistol-whipped, bound, and
gagged the couple, before fleeing
with 19 paintings valued at millions,
including Vermeer’s Lady Writing a
Letter with her Maid.

Vermeer’s interior scene was
loaded into Rose’s Ford Cortina, and
the group set off for West Cork. Suf-
fice to say, a nationwide hunt for the
paintings ensued, and a week later
Vermeer’s Lady Writing a Letter with
her Maid was retrieved from the boot
of a car parked outside Rose’s rented
cottage. While Rose Dugdale goes
down in history as the first woman to
pull off a major art heist, Vermeer’s

The black swan

For much of European his- internet. Author Nassim Nicholas
tory, it was presumed that Taleb expands on this concept in his
black swans did not exist, book, The Black Swan, arguing that
only white ones. A ‘black we humans spend the bulk of our
swan’ was an expression to describe time fixated on known facts, catego-
an impossibility, because all swans - rising and simplifying the specifics
as far as Europeans were concerned, of our known existence, and fail to
had white feathers. That was un- take into consideration what we do
til Dutch explorers led by Willem not know, or imagining the ‘impos-
de Vlamingh spotted black swans sible’. He questions: “Look into your
in Western Australia, and news of own personal life, to your choice
the black swan made its way back of profession, say, or meeting your
to Holland. The expression ‘black mate, your exile from your country
swan’ is used today to describe an of origin, the betrayals you faced,
event that is difficult to predict but your sudden enrichment or impover-
has large consequences for human- ishment. How often did these things
ity, one example being the rise of the occur according to a plan?”

NEWS FROM NOWHERE 14 News

Punctuated Challenging a core assump-
equilibrium tion of Darwin’s theory of
evolution, the theory of ‘punc-
tuated equilibrium’ has rel-
evance for our own lives.

In the 1970s, young palaeon- cies entered into yet another stable or loved one had died?) But middles
tologists Jay Gould and Niles phase, that is, until another eruption are muddy. They recede rather than
Eldredge had proposed a radical altered its course again. reverberate. They get lost, well, in
new idea of evolutionary change, the middle. Yet, the science of tim-
called ‘punctuated equilibrium’. The “Our lives rarely follow a clear, ing is revealing that midpoints have
essence of the theory was that, al- linear path,” writes Daniel H. Pink powerful, though peculiar, effects
though the evolution of species ad- in his book When: The Scientific Se- on what we do and how we do it.
vanced sluggishly, a slow and gradual crets of Perfect Timing. “More often, Sometimes hitting the midpoint - of
process with long periods of stasis, at they’re a series of episodes - with a project, a semester, a life - numbs
other moments this pace was inter- beginnings, middles, and ends. We our interest and stalls our progress.
rupted by a sudden burst of change. In often remember beginnings. (Can Other times, middles stir and stimu-
other words, this slow-moving trend you picture your first date with your late; reaching the midpoint awakens
was ‘punctuated’ by marked change. spouse or partner?) Endings also our motivation and propels us into a
Afterwards, the new transformed spe- stand out. (Where were you when more promising path.”
you heard that a parent, grandparent,

Reminiscence of the Garden with Wil under the parasol, 1888, Vincent van Gogh

News 15 NEWS FROM NOWHERE

THE TROUBLE
WITH ENVY

Who do you envy? The Grote Markt in Haarlem with Town Hall, 1671, Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde
When we think
about envy, or the demonstrates her superiority. Often, takes, losses, and stuff-ups can help
people who arouse as happens in schools and particularly placate an envious crowd. Guilt-
envy in us, it’s typically those we se- on social media, to avoid envy, peo- ridden for what they’ve achieved, or
cretly admire. We want to be more ple decrease their own performance for the fortune that has been thrust
like them, or have what they have, to the average level of the group. upon them, they feel disruptive feel-
or do the same things that they do. ings of guilt. “But in all fields,” writes
But often admiration manifests as But this is a loss for both the tal- Tournier, “even those of culture and
envy and has graver consequences. ented person, and for society more art, other people’s judgement exer-
You witness ‘envy stampedes’ on so- generally. “It is the fear of other cises a paralysing effect. Fear of criti-
cial media when a person’s followers people’s judgement that prevents cism kills spontaneity; it prevents
suddenly attack en masse, technically us from being ourselves,” writes people from expressing themselves
termed ‘piling on’. One person takes Tournier, “from showing ourselves freely, as they are. Much courage is
offence at a remark or image, and as we really are, from showing our needed to paint a picture, write a
there’s an outpouring of resentment. tastes, our desires, our convictions, book, to erect a building designed
The victim’s only response, in most from developing ourselves and from along new architectural lines, or to
instances, is to apologise for their in- expanding freely according to our formulate an independent opinion
discretion in the hope that the envy own nature. It is the fear of other or an original idea. Any new con-
stampede peters out. people’s judgement that makes us cept, any creation falls foul of a host
sterile, and prevents our bearing all of critics. Those who criticise the
French-Swiss depth-psychologist the fruits that we are called to bear.” most are the ones who create noth-
Paul Tournier, author of Guilt and ing. But they form a powerful wall
Grace: A Psychological Study, de- It perhaps explains why many which we all fear to run into more
scribes how a talented typist in an successful people go to all lengths - than we admit.”
office can evoke negative emotions online and in the media - to demon-
in her peers. “In the office, the great strate their vulnerability. Errors, mis-
speed of one typist will constantly
arouse in her slower fellow-workers
a sense of guilt which will paralyse
them still further in their work.”
The sensitive talented typist will
come to feel guilty for causing dis-
tress, and will, according to Tourni-
er, “do many little services for them
to win their forgiveness”.

The talented typist will be bur-
dened with a vague sense of guilt, and
her small acts to smooth matters over
may evoke further displeasure from
her fellow typists as she ‘once again’

NEWS FROM NOWHERE 16 News

In search of talent

Over a decade ago, author Dan- approach accelerates her “learning nerves in the brain and is made up
iel Coyle embarked on a journey in velocity”, a technique Coyle calls of protein and fatty substances. This
search of talent. Not just ordinary “deep practice”. insulation allows electrical impulses
talent, but what he called ‘hot- to transmit along nerve cells quick-
beds’ of talent where people were When you engage in deep prac- ly, and people who are particularly
learning to do extraordinary things tice you are deep in the learning adept at bouncing a ball on their
quickly, be that playing soccer, or ‘struggle’, and it’s this struggle, with head, or doing a backflip on a beam,
the violin, singing, playing tennis, all its myriad obstacles, that en- have simply built many layers of my-
and so forth. The journey took him graves the skill into memory. And elin around this particular brain cir-
to ramshackle tennis courts in Mos- because it’s a struggle, much like cuit. “The more we fire a particular
cow to soccer fields in Sao Paulo, climbing a steep hill, deep prac- circuit, the more myelin optimises
to a cramped vocal studio in Dal- tice is slow going. You make errors that circuit, and the stronger, faster,
las where he met Jennie, age 24, and then correct them. You stop, and more fluent our movements and
working on a pop song titled ‘Run- struggle, make errors, and learn thoughts become.”
ning out of Time’. Coyle wanted to from them. But this error-fuelled
find out what coaching strategies or approach, according to memory When Jennie was blunder-
learning techniques were turning experts, accelerates learning and is ing over the song ‘Running out of
these children into what the media the reason why some people learn Time’, she was firing and optimising
would later name ‘child prodigies’, faster than others. a neural circuit and was growing her
young people possessing skills that white matter. Unbeknownst to Jen-
far surpassed their peers. On his In the laboratory, there’s a micro- nie, as she made multiple mistakes
journey, he braced himself for the scopic substance that explains what’s and fixed them, she was fine-tuning
extraordinary young human who going on in the brains of fast learn- her brain, much like a mechanic on
was born with superior talent, but ers, and it’s called myelin. In short, a car, to optimise its performance.
what he found, instead, were rather myelin is an insulation layer around
ordinary children making mistakes,
and lots of them. The concert (1655), Gerard ter Borch

Jennie in the vocal studio at-
tempts to “hit the big finish, in
which she turns the word time
into a waterfall of notes,” he writes
in his book The Talent Code. “She
tries it, screws up, stops, and thinks,
then sings it again at a much slower
speed.” Jennie is floundering. She
sings, and stops, sings and stops.
Her error rate is extreme because
Jennie is singing at the edge of her
ability, and probably really should
be choosing an easier song. But af-
ter countless attempts, suddenly she
gets it. “The piece snaps into place,”
writes Coyle. Jennie’s mistake-laden

News 17 NEWS FROM NOWHERE

PLANNING FOR IDLENESS

One study conducted on US citizens noted that a sizeable 76 per
cent of respondents kept a daily to-do list, with some managing up
to three lists concurrently. While most people fill to-do lists with

important things to do, few use such a list to plan for breaks.

Merry Trio, 1629-31, Judith Leyster You’re no doubt familiar
with the ‘to do’ list - a
“The more we develop a skill tool to keep you on track
circuit, the less we’re aware and create some structure
that we’re using it.” in an otherwise chaotic life - but
Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code you may not be as familiar with the
‘break list’, which lists the breaks
you hope to take and what activi-
ties you intend to do.

In his book When: The Scientific
Secrets of Perfect Timing, Daniel H.
Pink recommends adding a ‘break
list’ into your phone or computer
calendar “so one of those annoy-
ing pings will remind you” to take
a break from being ‘on task’. What
do you on your ‘break’ is completely
up to you, but these short scheduled
breaks can be invigorating.

A further strategy that Pink has
utilised for the past four years is to
spend the final five minutes of the
workday - not to race against the
clock or read the news online, but
to write down what he has accom-
plished since the morning. “Mak-
ing progress is the single largest
day-to-day motivator on the job,”
he writes, “But without tracking
our ‘dones’ we often don’t know
whether we’re progressing.” Finally,
Pink employs the final two to three
minutes of his workday to lay out
a plan for the following day, which
he says, helps close the door on to-
day and plan for the next.

NEWS FROM NOWHERE 18 News

EDUCATION AND “We only think when confront-
IDENTITY
ed by a problem.”

— John Dewey

One morning in the early friends and I like my family. I don’t shift, either for the better or for the
1970s, a young Irish want to lose them.” worse. She calls it a “whole person
American from South metamorphosis” where education
Boston, who was study- Philosopher Roland Martin was can change how we walk, talk,
ing philosophy at the University of so haunted by the young man’s deci- dress, behave, view the world and
Massachusetts in Boston, knocked sion to forego a higher education to our lives.
on his teacher’s door. Philosopher preserve his friendships and his way
Jane Roland Martin opened the door of life, that she wrote a book about It’s not something that we pay
to the news that her student was quit- it. Education, she stresses, can utter- much attention to when we decide
ting philosophy for good. ly transform us. But most of the time to set out on a course in architecture
we view education as nothing more or marine science. Mostly, we think
In her book Educational Meta- than learning some new things, tak- about what we will learn, not who
morphoses, Roland Martin describes ing on new ideas, or altering our we will become. But Roland Martin
the conversation as follows. “I viewpoints a touch, but nothing as does not limit ‘whole person meta-
didn’t want to go without telling drastic has changing who we are. But morphosis’ to simply studying at
you why,” the student began. “Last Roland Martin contends that educa- school or university, but argues that
night when I was drinking beer with tion can enact a “radical change of all institutions of society are educa-
my buddies it came to me - it just identity”. Her student’s fear was in- tional agents, including television,
came to me - that if I keep studying deed prescient; learning philosophy the internet, and computer games.
philosophy I won’t be able to talk was going to alter him radically, and “These are educational agents that
to them anymore. We’ll have noth- his relationships with his friends pass down cultural liabilities to chil-
ing to say to each other. I like my and family would suffer a profound dren and people of all ages,” she says.

“‘Remember the berry season is short.’ I came across this poignant thought the other
day in the most pedestrian of places: on the basket our local pick-your-own straw-
berry farm gives visitors before they hit the fields... What you do with your life will
be a function of how you spend the 8,760 hours that make a year, the 700,000 or so
that will make a life... Years ago, when I filled out my first 168-hour (one week) time
log, I thought that it seemed strange to view life as cells on a spreadsheet. But over
time I came to see that I could view myself as the artist deciding on those cells. I be-
came a mosaic maker, carefully placing tiles. By thinking about the arrangement, and
watching others, and trying different strategies, over time I could create an intricate
and satisfying pattern.”

— Laura Vanderkam

Artwork by Monica Barengo

UNINTENTIONAL PURPOSE 20

Artist Dutch artist Hendrik Kerstens creates captivating
portraits of his daughter Paula using everyday objects -
showing the transformative power of art.

Unintentional purpose

Lampshade, 2008, by Hendrik Kerstens

Artist 21 UNINTENTIONAL PURPOSE

Blue Turban, 2015, by Hendrik Kerstens

At age 40, Hendrik Kerstens owned a wine import- worked full-time in a pharmacy. “So, we changed roles,”
ing store in the Netherlands. He loved the romance of he says. His original thought was to do food photogra-
food and wine but didn’t enjoy the commercial side of phy, but the reality of photographing food seemed devoid
the business. He wanted to spend his time doing some- of all the things he loved about food and wine. He had
thing more creative. As he saw it, his whole life was crea- bought a small simple camera, the type you’d normally
tive, except in a professional sense. So when his daugh- carry on holidays with you to take snapshots, but then
ter Paula was born he asked his wife what she thought quickly upgraded. In the meantime, he met an old friend,
about the idea of him launching into something creative a photographer, who gave him a very old camera to use,
full-time. She said, “You know, that’s fine. So, I will go a Technicolor camera using an analogue system. “When
to work full-time and you can do the housekeeping and I saw the matte glass in the camera for the first time, it
raise Paula.” So, they agreed. While Hendrik studied was a new world,” Hendrik declares, who promptly asked
photography during the day and cared for Paula, his wife his daughter, Paula, to sit for him. The idea of using an

UNINTENTIONAL PURPOSE 22 Artist

Green Turban, 2009 by Hendrik Kerstens adds, “I also see myself, of course. I always try not to
look at it too personally.”
antique camera to capture the present captivated him. “It
was a kind of time leap,” he explains. “And that’s how I “She’s the same person,” adds Hendrik. “But she lives
started taking portraits of Paula.” two lives.” One as Hendrik’s daughter, and the other as
an immortal vision in art. “In the beginning,” he contin-
Today, Hendrik works in his studio at home in Am- ues, “there were some people who were very critical. How
sterdam, stepping outside into the world from time to can you photograph your daughter this way? How can
time, but preferring to cocoon at home with his pictures. you influence your daughter?” But for Hendrik and Paula
“Sometimes I have doubts that it’s not good enough. I it was an art project they worked on together, something
look to another artist and think, ‘Wow, they are great.’ they’d discuss within the family, including with Hen-
The first photograph I showed, I was very nervous.” drik’s wife. “It’s always been a dialogue,” adds Paula.

Hendrik’s daughter Paula has posed for his camera Hendrik’s work has become rather iconic online,
since childhood. “I grew up with it,” she says, “but the particularly his use of everyday objects such as plastic
first photographs were more documentary, such as what bags, towels, and books as headwear. Fashion designer
was happening in my life. Later, it become art photo- Alexander McQueen based his Fall 2009 collection on
graphs.” During the day, Hendrik would take Paula to Hendrik’s image of Paula with a plastic bag as a head-
museums, and they’d always talk art. She has become a dress. When asked why Hendrik employs everyday ob-
work of art herself - now Paula can view her portrait on jects, such napkins or towels in his shoots, he explains
the walls of Danziger Gallery in New York and the Flat- that he’s never really viewed the world as it’s meant to be
land Gallery in Amsterdam, amongst others - and she has seen. “When I look at things, I automatically see other
taken it in her stride. However the experience has clearly possibilities than the intentional purpose of it.” When a
shaped her: she has since majored in art history and is teacher showed him a picture of an apple and said, “This
now an art historian. is an apple,” he’d think, “That’s not an apple, that’s a pic-
ture.” Similarly, when a book is placed on Paula’s head, it
When Paula views her portrait on gallery walls, is no longer a book, but a hat. “So you bring it into a new
she says she prefers to look at the work objectively. context,” he adds.
“Is it a good picture? How is the composition? How is
the light? How is the darkness in the image?” But, she The art world has often compared his clear austere
portraits of Paula to that of 17th century Dutch painter
Johannes Vermeer. But “of course,” laughs Hendrik. “Of
course my picture is like that. It’s in my DNA, it’s in my
blood. I am Dutch.”

“Some Dutch painters of the 17th century are silent
teachers who give me goosebumps, like Rembrandt and
Frans Hals. The subjects are often depicted in isolation.
The portraits emphasise the actual characteristics of the
sitter: they do not idealise. That is something I also strive
for. My goal is to add a dimension in which the person
depicted is able to convey the feeling that the artist or
the camera is not present.”

Historically, the Dutch are renowned for their art.
Why is there such an abundance of art from a country
less than one-fifth the land size of the state of Victoria,
Australia? Some think it’s due to the characteristic Dutch
light, which, Hendrik says, “can also be found in the north
of France, Normandy. You can also see it in Denmark.” But
he agrees: “I think, yes, it has to do with the atmosphere.
Here, in the Netherlands, it’s flat, it’s wet most of the time
in the air, and it makes the colours totally different. The
perspective is different. But it’s also a devotion to God.

Artist 23 UNINTENTIONAL PURPOSE

Commes, by Hendrik Kerstens

UNINTENTIONAL PURPOSE 24 Artist

Napkin, 2009 by Hendrik Kerstens cannot shake the intense feeling they
experience when viewing the art. “They
Because we here in the North, everything was for God. I can’t forget it,” continues Hendrik. “In
mean that, OK, that’s a nice flower but if you make a picture, just one or two seconds after viewing
you have to do it very carefully because God gave it to us.” the portrait, they remember it forever. I
think that is magic.”
“Yes, that’s why details became very important,” adds
Paula. Plus, she adds: “Sobriety.” The Dutch are not Today’s obsession with taking one’s
known for their extravagant lifestyles. own image, the selfie, is a form of
portrait, in a sense. But the selfie is a
Hendrik’s parents worked in the medical profession dialogue, or interaction, between not
and expressed little interest in the arts. He was born in two people, but one. The sitter be-
The Hague, and grew up in an old people’s home, run comes both ‘object’ and ‘image maker’
by his parents. His family lived downstairs. “So I grew up - an odd duality indeed and one of the
with old people,” he says. reasons why selfies are regarded as the
ultimate act of narcissism. But Hen-
What makes a good portrait? Hendrik calls the por- drik queries: “Are they portraits?” He
trait process - where you have a sitter and a photogra- doesn’t think so. He compares the ar-
pher - a “situation”. But, he says, “the photographer in- tificial creation of the ‘selfie’ to an ac-
vites the sitter to make a portrait, and so you have an tor who acts up in front of a camera.
interaction”. The meaning of the portrait, he explains,
is that this interaction between sitter and photographer In his career, Hendrik has taken por-
is interrupted by the viewer, who “goes into the mind of traits of famous actors who are accus-
the sitter”. Some portraits are so moving that the viewer tomed to performing in front a running
camera. But, when they had to sit for
him in the ‘situation’ of a portrait, he
says, “they really, really collapsed. They
did not know what to do because the
camera was not running and they had
to make a new situation.” Adding, “it
was very, very interesting.”

For Paula, on her part, any small
emotion when sitting becomes fodder for the camera, and
Hendrik’s role is to capture that. “I’m just scanning for the
moment,” he says. He may tell Paula to tilt her head one
way, or the other, depending upon how the light interacts
with the material she is wearing, and the reflections made.
“If she wears white or black, you see the shadows.” While he
does look to old Dutch masters for inspiration, he says he’s
equally looking at the impressionist painters. “Because they
were one of the first to use light and shadow and worked
with it in a new manner.”

When viewing Paula in these portraits, we witness
her relationship with her father. Because when we view
Paula, she is viewing her father, the photographer. “It’s
easier to open up to the picture,” she admits. “I can open
up because of the relationship.”

Hendrik says that he prefers Paula to gaze over the
camera because it widens her eyes. “But on the other
hand,” Hendrik adds, “is she looking to the audience or
at her dad?”

Artist 25 UNINTENSIONAL PURPOSE

Cosy, 2012, by Hendrik Kerstens

C.G. JUNG 26

“The shoe that
fits one person
pinches another;
there is no recipe
for living that suits
all cases. Each
of us carries our
own life-plan,
which cannot be
superseded by any
other.”

C.G. Jung

Illustration by Monica Barengo



THE DUTCH WAY TO HAPPINESS 28 Flourish

Flourish

The Dutch way to
happiness

Wo r d s
JENNIFER KUNST
Artwork
KATY HARRALD

In order to be happier, year, the results are published in A formal approach to the study
we must turn away The World Happiness Report, giv- of happiness reflects a shift in un-
from the activities that ing us a sense of the societal factors derstanding the human condition,
make us so unhappy. that are associated with the experi- both on a societal and individual
ence of what researchers call a sense level. Historically, there has been a
Why is it that the Dutch always of “subjective well-being”. tendency to approach these crucial
tend to take one of the top spots in questions from the vantage point
world happiness rankings? For the Social psychologists, too, have of what makes people unhappy.
past 10 years, the United Nations been studying the topic of human Researchers asked: What is wrong?
General Assembly has organised a happiness increasingly in recent What makes us sick? What needs
study of its member nations to iden- years. In his 2006 book, The Hap- to be fixed? The emphasis on ill-
tify factors that contribute toward or piness Hypothesis: Finding Modern ness rather than health permeates
undermine happiness, based on six Truth in Ancient Wisdom, Jonathan our medical, social, and psycholog-
factors: real GDP (Gross Domestic Haidt walks us through history ical systems, which are all aimed to
Product) per capita, social support, from the earliest philosophers to help us out of our negative predica-
healthy life expectancy, freedom to modern research laboratories to ment rather than help us develop
make life choices, generosity, and propose the following simple but in positive ways to grow, develop,
perceptions of corruption. Each profound conclusion. Human hap- and flourish.
piness rests on the balance of love
and work, developing a life that is Beginning in the 1990s, psychol-
grounded in a network of personal ogist Martin Seligman launched a
relationships, and extends outward systematic study of positive psychol-
to a meaningful contribution to ogy, examining the factors associat-
the welfare of others. ed with positive human functioning

Fl

THE DUTCH WAY TO HAPPINESS 30 Flourish

and exploring the question of what I was struck by the embodied, related activities. They reflect a
makes life worth living. This ap- sensual nature of the activities of regular practice of setting aside the
proach is more than a research study these more-than-average happy work of the day, disengaging from
that identifies the psychological fac- people. They spend time outdoors. the busyness that fuels stress, anxie-
tors associated with happiness; it is They move. When they run, they ty, depression, exhaustion, and oth-
meant to be implemented in action, do not go to the gym and put in er unhappy states of mind and body.
to be a vehicle of positive change their 30 minutes on the treadmill In order to be happier, we must turn
at the individual and community - they run around the town. When away from the activities that make
levels. This is a game-changing they bike, there is wind in their fac- us so unhappy: working too much,
paradigm shift. We begin to dream es. They see the sky, breathe in the competing too much, and striving
that we can do more than alleviate air. They move in space and time, too much.
suffering. We actually can take ac- wait at the corner to cross the street,
tive steps to improve the quality of say hi to passersby. The Dutch have a term for this
our lives. kind of disengagement from stress
And let’s talk about beer and cof- mode. It is called “niksen” which is
So, I began to think beyond the fee, flowers, and vegetables! Could it roughly translated as “doing some-
question of who is happy to the ques- be that a regular diet of tastes, sights, thing without a purpose”. It in-
tion of what can we do to become and smells feeds not only the body volves dropping the virtue-driven
happier? The Dutch tend to take but the mind and the spirit as well? intention to use our time wisely, let-
out top spots for exercising (sport), If people who are happier tend to ting go of the need to get something
riding bikes, for drinking beer and do these things, could we do these done, easing off the pressure to be
coffee, for flowers, and having a high things to become happier? It seems productive. Recently, Olga Meck-
vegetable diet. Perhaps some or all like it might be worth a try. ing wrote a book about it called,
of these things contribute to their Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of
elevated levels of happiness? There is something else instruc- Doing Nothing.
tive about this list of happiness-

Flourish 31 THE DUTCH WAY TO HAPPINESS

The Dutch attitude of niksen of- we need to go emotionally - to that This is why
fers the possibility of boosting one’s place of quiet, not only on the out- embodied
happiness quotient - living in any side but on the inside as well. Maybe movement,
country or city in the world - be- it will involve going for a walk, sip- being in
cause it is a state of mind, relatively ping a cup of coffee, sitting on the nature,
independent of place. It is as simple porch, baking bread, walking the taking in new
as making a commitment to set aside dog, or taking a drive. It is essential, sights, smells,
time away from the stresses of the though, that we go about these ac- sounds, and
day, a time to just be. tivities slowly, quietly, so that we can tastes is truly
empty our minds, let ourselves rest. healing for
While this shift may be simple in We unplug, unwind. We let our re- us.
theory, it is challenging in practice. sponsibilities be. They can wait. As
We have to guard against a tempta- much as we are able, we let ourselves
tion to use that time off to get some- waste time.
thing else done! An hour to ourselves
away from work or the kids and we Ultimately the treatment for the
want to go to the grocery store or the illness of stress and worry is allowing
gym, catch up on email or social me- ourselves to go ‘off duty’. Left to its
dia, do laundry or mow the lawn. Two own devices, busyness begets busy-
hours and we might even be tempted ness, stress begets stress. We need to
to go to the movies, hit some balls stop the cycle. We need to take regu-
at the driving range, or get our nails lar breaks. We need to play. We need
done. We need room in our lives for to laugh. We need to breathe. I think
these things, too, but the niksen pro- this is why embodied movement, be-
ject involves setting all those activi- ing in nature, taking in new sights,
ties aside to cultivate a more empty, smells, sounds, and tastes is truly
non-productive state of mind. healing for us. The research may not
indicate that these experiences cause
Niksen involves doing something an increase in happiness, but they
that allows us to turn down the vol- do seem to be associated with it.
ume on the noise in our lives. We Such is the way of niksen.
find things to do that take us where

NIKSEN: THE DUTCH ART 32

Flourish

Niksen: The Dutch
art of doing nothing

BY OLGA MECKING

When we think of same amount of work, men do more “There is no quiet moment, and
busyness, we usually paid work while women do more un- if there is, we scramble to figure out
think of work. But the paid work. This is the case all over what it is we’re forgetting to do or
overwhelm spills over the world, even in the most gender- we frantically fill that space with
into other areas. equal countries, and progress in this more.” Doing nothing is practically
respect seems to have flatlined. Even unheard of among women. “It’s a
Doing nothing, or in Dutch, in Nordic countries, gender equal- radical notion to say that we should
niksen, can be good for us and en- ity seems to be more a dream than do less, but ultimately one I think
hance our feelings of creativity, a reality. We have come far, but not most women would benefit from
productivity, as well as wellbeing. nearly far enough. embracing,” she tells me in an email.
But it’s not exactly a gender-neutral
phenomenon. “I think we hold men and wom- Still, men struggle with niksen
en’s leisure time to different stand- too. Ludo Gabriele, a French writer
It turns out it is much easier for ards. We allow men to participate living in the US with his wife, Di-
men to do nothing than it is for in daily relaxation, unwinding, and ana, and their two children, fills me
women. Studies show that in het- processing as their due for working,” in: “As men, our sense of self and
erosexual relationships, men don’t says Gemma Hartley, the journalist our social value are so attached to
just have more time than women, who popularised the term ‘emotional what we do, what we contribute,
they are also much better at protect- labour’, or the conscious and effortful and what we provide that the ab-
ing the free time they have. And planning, worrying, and kin-keeping sence of action can feel like a loss of
what’s more, women protect their that many women do. Women, on self,” he says. These gender norms
husbands’ free time too, even at the other hand, are allowed to niks force men to close themselves off
the expense of their own leisure, as but along more defined lines: “We emotionally, which hinders their
Brigid Schulte discusses in her book generally don’t mean zoning out, re- emotional development. “This
Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play laxing, or sitting down in your own leads to a myriad of harmful conse-
When No One Has the Time. house. We expect women to plan quences such as anxiety, depression,
and work toward effortful self-care and the inability to be in touch with
Statistics show that while men - a yoga class, a night out with the ourselves and to form authentic re-
and women do approximately the girls, a book club meeting - making lationships,” he tells me via email.
women’s leisure time exceptional
rather than routine,” says Hartley, Gabriele is the man behind a
admitting that she feels guilty when blog called Woke Daddy, which aims
she reads a book on the couch while to dismantle toxic masculinity. And
her husband does the dishes. while men are stepping up at home
and in their marriages, they’re still

Flourish 33 NIKSEN: THE DUTCH ART
Photograph by Cultura Creative

NIKSEN: THE DUTCH ART 34 Flourish

acting “within restrictive gender While the title was initially meant as Although fathers are involved,
norms. Those norms pressure us to ex- a parody of books like French Women mothers reduce their working hours
ist in a narrow man-box that denies us Don’t Get Fat, de Bruin found as she more than fathers in order to care for
a big portion of our humanity”. talked to all sorts of experts, includ- their children. This might also be a
ing historians, psychologists, expats, contributing factor in their high lev-
When we think of busyness, we and others, that Dutch women are els of happiness. Many women here
usually think of work. But the over- indeed happy. According to de Bru- work part-time whether they have
whelm spills over into other areas of in, this has to do with high levels of children or not, and this has been
our lives too. For example, not only personal freedom. linked in several studies to increased
are we spending more time at work, feelings of happiness. When women
parents are also spending more and The Dutch, as an individualistic have time for professional activities
more time with their children. And nation, have a lot of choices about as well as their families and hob-
this is true for both mums and dads. how to live their lives, and women bies, they generally feel happier. The
Men have become increasingly in- are no exception. They can marry Netherlands is a great place for this
volved husbands and fathers and also whomever, whenever they want, kind of work-life balance, as it’s prac-
perform more chores than their own or not get married at all. Moreover, tically the norm here.
fathers did, so they spend much more Dutch women don’t feel pressured to
time being busy with the home. adhere to the rules of authorities, and However, it’s not all rosy, even
this has a positive effect on their feel- in paradise. These restrictive gender
That said, women still do the ma- ings of happiness. norms I mentioned above are a re-
jority of housework and childrearing. ality in the Netherlands too. “Tra-
While spending more time with the Maybe most important, though, ditional gender roles still persist in
children and the family appears to be is the fact that in the Netherlands, this country. Women do more unpaid
a positive development, for many it there is no expectation of a perfect care work, men bring home the ba-
can actually create increased levels of appearance. Women dress for com- con,” says Suzan Steeman, an editor
stress and busyness. fort and practicality rather than to working for WomenInc., a network
stun the onlooker. And dressed in of women pushing for more gender
This is especially true in homes their jeans and sneakers, they are equality. “We’re progressive on the
where the parents (or one of the direct and outspoken, with a strong surface. But you need to look deeper,”
parents) are employed in what the sense of personal empowerment. says Steeman.
New York Times calls “greedy work”,
or work that requires extraordi- Last but not least, Dutch women Her advice? “What is your ideal?”
nary commitment. Think very long rarely experience the burdens felt by she asks me. In other words, you set
hours and the expectation that you women in other countries who are your own terms. Think about what
work as though you have zero social required to take care of not just their would be fair and equal for you and
or personal life. Professionals in the children but also their aging par- try to bring that into your own life.
worlds of finance, law, and consulting ents. Most Dutch people will agree
are especially at risk of falling prey that caring for children is the par-
to greedy work, and this can create ents’ responsibility but caring for the
stress and busyness for both parents elderly is a job for the government.
and children. State-run homes for the elderly are a
fact of life and accessible for all. The
But not everywhere. It seems that Dutch have a word to describe the
at least on the surface, the Nether- nuclear family - gezin - as opposed
lands might have gotten things right. to familie, which is the whole family,
and the two are viewed as different
The book Dutch Women Don’t and separate family units with differ-
Get Depressed, by science journalist ent priorities.
Ellen de Bruin, argues that Dutch
women are the happiest in the world.

Brought to you by the Womankind team, New Philosopher magazine is available in
bookstores and newsstands in Australia, NZ, the US, Canada, the EU, and the UK.

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36

Psychology 37 A MATTER OF ESSENTIALS

In life, we battle against both time and energy, meaning
we have to learn to prioritise the essentials.

Wo r d s
ANTONIA CASE
Artwork
PIETER DE HOOCH

A MATTER OF
ESSENTIALS

“Tell me to what you pay atten- have been dealt with - the kids fed two tokens to domestic duties. By
tion and I will tell you who you are,” and dressed and put to bed, or the the time we’re free to ‘do what we
once wrote José Ortega y Gasset. university assignments duly submit- please’, we’re spent.
The Spanish philosopher could well ted, or the messages responded to -
have put it, “tell me on what you what time and energy is left? How Ortega proposed that ‘your life’
expend your energy and I will tell does one, at 11pm at night, pick up consists of what you do with your
you who you are”. Because it’s how a paintbrush, or start learning Chi- time and energy within the limits
we use our limited sources of energy nese calligraphy? of your circumstances. You are pre-
that matters - such as, do we employ sented with a variety of possibili-
it on online shopping, checking our A simple lack of time and en- ties as to how to live your life and
phone, or philosophising on the ergy is one of the reasons we race you are free to choose one activity
meaning of life? about. We are battling against both over another. Of course, not all pos-
the clock and our own finite levels sibilities are open to all of us. Not
When asked, Why don’t you of energy. It’s as though we’re al- many, for example, have the choice
spend more time doing the things you lotted a bag of energy at the start to clamber into a private ship and
love?, be it creative endeavours, or of each day - 15 gold tokens of en- rocket into space - not unless you
hiking in the mountains, the usual ergy - and we distribute these tokens are one of the few billionaires un-
response is, “because I am exhaust- minute by minute. Eight tokens to trammelled by circumstance. But we
ed!” Once the necessities of life work, five tokens to the family, and do all get to enjoy a certain degree

A MATTER OF ESSENTIALS 38 Psychology

of freedom in how we allot our time and energy, given on his success, the tech expert pursued every oppor-
our station. “Fate gives us an inexorable repertory of tunity with gusto. “By the time I met him he was hy-
determinate possibilities, that is, it gives us different peractive,” writes McKeown, “he seemed to find a new
destinies. We accept fate and within it we choose one obsession every day, sometimes every hour. And in the
destiny,” writes Ortega. process, he lost his ability to discern the vital few from
the trivial many. Everything was important. As a result
It’s common to see people weighed down by this re- he was stretched thinner and thinner. He was making a
sponsibility, however. And some deal with the enormi- millimetre of progress in a million directions.”
ty of it by thinking. “Should I quit my job, or should I
ask for more hours at work? Or should go back to study, When McKeown sketched out the
or not study, or move overseas, or return home?” Some following image, the young executive
deploy much of their allotted hours to considering the gazed at it for quite some time. The im-
choices they could make in the future. They weigh up age represents energy dispersed in every
the endless possibilities and before long, a forever shift- which way, scattered into the environ-
ing reality presents even further possibilities to con- ment like fireworks. The particular im-
sider and the rumination has no end. age caught the tech executive’s attention.
This is “the story of my life”, he said.
Ortega doesn’t give much weight to the thinking Many fall victim to this: we start new projects
part of all this. “A person’s destiny…”, writes Ortega, with gusto and determination only to be taken in by
“is primarily action. We do not live to think, on the some new idea, which sends our energy and attention
contrary: we think in order that we may succeed in askance. We attempt to ‘straddle’ the new activity as
surviving.” If we are, then, what we do, and not what well as the old, like attempting to walk a parallel tight-
we think we ought to do, then it’s important at some rope, only to lose our balance and fall.
point to stop discussing the options and to act. When the author McKeown’s child was born, he ex-
cused himself from the bedside of his wife and the beam-
In his book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of ing face of his newborn child to answer a couple of work
Less, Greg McKeown describes working with a young emails, and to even attend a quick client meeting in
and particularly energetic tech executive. This guy was person. “To my shame, while my wife lay in hospital
so clever and enthusiastic that work opportunities just
kept getting tossed his way. Young and eager to build

Ortega doesn’t give much weight to
the thinking part of all this. “A person’s
destiny…”, writes Ortega, “is primarily
action. We do not live to think, on the
contrary: we think in order that we may
succeed in surviving.”

Psychology 39 A MATTER OF ESSENTIALS

with our hours-old baby, I went to the meeting,” he of using the time to think, reflect, recharge, or connect
writes. Looking back at his decision to ‘straddle’ work with friends and colleagues.”
tasks around family duties on such a day horrifies him.
How could he not see that work was not ‘essential’ on He continues: “When we try to do it all and have it
such a significant day? How could he not see that work all, we find ourselves making trade-offs at the margins.
emails could just wait? When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose
where to focus our energies and time, other people…
As it happens, the client was unimpressed too. “As will choose for us, and before long we’ll have lost sight
it turned out, exactly nothing came out of the client of everything that is meaningful and important. We can
meeting. But even if it had… in trying to keep everyone make our choices deliberately or allow other people’s
happy I had sacrificed what mattered most.” agendas to control our lives.”

This got McKeown thinking: “Why is it that we If you could manufacture more time, or energy, then
have so much more ability inside of us than we often you wouldn’t have to worry too much about it. But as
choose to utilise? How can we make the choices that the first law of thermodynamics states, we can neither
allow us to tap into more of the potential inside our- create energy nor destroy it, but merely transfer it from
selves?” one place to another. And it’s this transference of en-
ergy - as to where you decide to channel your finite
When McKeown sketched out the resources, that determines your destiny. But beware, as
next image for the tech executive, he Benjamin Franklin aptly warned, “You may delay, but
started nodding. “What would happen,” time will not.”
McKeown continued pointing to the im-
age, “if we could figure out the one thing
you could do that would make the high-
est contribution?”
Now we all know that life isn’t as simple as deciding
to do ‘one thing’ and pursuing it. Had we been born aris-
tocrats in 17th century Holland, then this might be the
case. We could apply our time to painting or, if we were
so inclined, to studying the disparate parts of the reflect-
ing telescope. But modern life is nothing like aristocratic
Early Modern Europe. Today, we commute, work, shop,
drive to appointments, fill in forms, pay bills, clean,
groom, and then it’s time to rest to do it all over again.
And companies have got into the spirit, too, by piling on
top of these basic human survival tasks a plethora of vir-
tual tasks, a ‘second life of tasks’ - social media, mobile
chat, screen entertainment, gaming, and myriad others.
McKeown suggests that we need to take note of
what’s taking our time and energy and whether this ac-
tivity fits into our intentional purpose. Clearly, taking
the kids to school is a duty that’s firmly entrenched on
the ‘to do’ list, however do you really need to be check-
ing the news five times a day?
“Without being fully aware, we can get caught up
in non-essential habits - like checking our email the
second we get out of bed every morning, or picking up
a doughnut on the way home from work each day, or
spending our lunch hour scrolling the Internet instead

4

Jeanne de Kroon

Portraits 41 LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM

Jeanne de Kroon lives with chickens on a boat in
Amsterdam and works with women-led organisations in
India to realise her ambitions.

Wo r d s
JEANNE DE KROON

Interview & Photography
MADELEINE BOLLE

I grew up in The Hague, a little town in the Nether- We all have this conditioned idea of what fashion is,
lands next to the sea. My dad was a documentary maker especially when you grow up in modern society, which is
and my mother was a fashion journalist, and then art about supermodels and glitz and glam and Vogue covers.
historian. My father made documentaries about the I just didn’t see myself in that industry. So, I decided to
magic of light in the Netherlands, about the reflections study law in the Netherlands. But then I dropped out. I
and what it did on the water. We have so much water in went to my father, and he said, “OK, well, if you want
this country, the light has always been special. Even in to explore your life, then you can do it, but you have
the 17th century, painters from all over the world came to do it yourself.” So I moved to Paris and did a course
to the Netherlands to capture the light. So I feel like there, but mostly I learned to play music on the streets
my whole childhood was filled with, I don’t know, see- with a group of people. I played the ukulele. I had bright
ing beyond, like stories of textiles or stories of light. My red hair and I lived on no money and went to all the
father would always take me to the seaside to really see, bakeries around asking for bread. But one day I started
“Hey, you cannot just watch it, you really have to see it, working with a Dutch modelling agency. I went to New
like be with it.” I was an only child. York for Fashion Week, 2012. I ended up sleeping in
a bunk bed with a bunch of roommates I didn’t know,
My mother moved away from the family when I was with no working visa. I remember booking my first job
young. And then, when I was 14, I got to live with my and my agency in the Netherlands was really excited.
stepmother and my dad. But then my stepmother didn’t I walked into this room, put on this polyester dress,
want to have me in the house and so my dad got an extra had lots of makeup done, and the stylist is telling me,
house for me when I was 15. I was very upset with the “Give me more... more intense and sexy.” I just remem-
world. I was not a very zen 15-year-old.

LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM 42 Portraits

ber standing there as an 18-year-old, thinking, “Uh, wait a
minute, I’m not even the story that I’m supposed to sell to
the world? What is this?”

From New York, I booked a ticket to Berlin because
my friend in Paris lived in Berlin and for some reason it at-
tracted me. I started university there. I studied philosophy
and political science, but I dropped out. As a 19-year-old
looking for what to do, I think Berlin was the most intense
and amazing city to live in.

But during my semester holidays, I’d travel. On my first
trip, I arrived in Kathmandu in my German techno outfit. I
had black hair and black boots. One of the first days there,
an enchanting lady walked me to a little store and said
something like, “I don’t understand, your eyes look like a
celebration, but your outfit doesn’t make sense.” We went
to this little store and she showed me all of these amaz-
ing textiles. She had the best collection of wool from the
mountains. She told me stories about the yak wool, the
natural dyes they used. At some point she also showed me
this vintage piece from India. And that’s where I think my
journey started.

So I jumped on a train, a bus, another train, and a
bus, and I went to India. I went to look for this small vil-
lage where this piece of embroidery was made. And this
lasted for three years. I felt like I was on a sort of spiritual
adventure throughout the world. I followed my curiosity.
I just started travelling, through Central America and

Portraits 43 LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM

East Africa and Ethiopia, Nepal, and India many times. what, I’m going to go back to Berlin and I’m going to
But at the same time, I also saw the destruction caused sell a few of these dresses. But more importantly, I’m go-
by the fashion system. About 80 per cent of people who ing to tell the stories they’ve told me.” Then I remember
work in fashion are women, but we only own 10 per renting my little stall in Berlin at the Sunday market. I
cent of the global capital. Women make it, they buy it, had a few dresses but the sense of joy that it brought to
they sell it, but they don’t earn the money. The middle- my heart, I was like, “This is what I’m supposed to do.”
men are there due to the patriarchal system. And I saw
the destruction, like rivers next to the textile factories And then, I was in India again. I started sharing a
that were bubbling bright pink one day and bright blue lot on social media, and someone from Australia con-
the next day. I got to know the women who were suffer- nected me to Madhu, one of the most incredible women
ing from either the environmental impact or the work- I’ve ever met. She runs a social enterprise and an NGO
ing conditions in the factories. called Saheli Women. Saheli is translated in Hindi as girl-
friend. She started it. She grew up in a very traditional
Then I met this Afghan family, big textile collectors home and she learnt to speak English. She saw an ad-
from Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. Getting to know this vertisement for Berkeley University in America, she ap-
Afghan family, a whole new world suddenly opened. We plied, and got in with a full scholarship. It was the first
sat there in this tiny room filled with textiles. I heard time she had left her town in India.
their incredible songs, and we had beautiful saffron tea
and they brought in the best almonds I’ve tasted in my Her husband came from a small village called Bhi-
life. Kabul has always been the centre of the Silk Road, kamkor, in rural Rajasthan, close to Jodhpur. Her hus-
so it’s always been the hub where East meets West. They band’s mother’s house was empty because she had to go
showed me a few textiles, and I thought, “You know away with her three sons. Madhu went to visit for a local
wedding and she met so many incredible women, but

LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM 44 Portraits

with few chances in this very rural part of India. So she this dress on this napkin. We took it to her local sari
thought, “I’m going to get all the women together.” She tailor in the village. Her sari tailor made the paper pat-
went to the women’s houses to ask their husbands, but it terns - that you need for cutting textiles - from old In-
took months. At some point, she got around five women dian newspapers. Every woman got this little package of
to come to her mother-in-law’s house for the Saheli pro- old Indian newspapers and started making the dresses.
ject. But they needed income. That’s when she discov- The material that we used was from this Afghan family
ered that when women get married, they get a sewing that had all of these amazing textiles, they had beauti-
machine as a part of their bridal treasure or dowry. So ful ikats, like handwoven ikat from Uzbekistan. And we
she called up her local sari tailor in Jodhpur. I mean, made seven dresses with Afghan textiles from India. It
every woman in India always makes her own saris. You all came together.
get the material and then your local tailor makes it into
an outfit. So the women went there and he started giv- I remember going back to Germany. I was still study-
ing classes, and the women really enjoyed it. And that ing at university, and then I had these seven dresses. It
was the moment I met her. She was just starting. was not much, but it was the first few dresses, so one
sleeve was here, one sleeve was there. It was not profes-
I don’t think the women had ever made a dress be- sionally tailored. We were all still learning. It just felt
fore, and definitely not the dress I had in mind. But I like this big piece in my life was finally coming togeth-
met her and fell in love with her story. I remember sit- er. And from one dress, all of a sudden there were 200
ting with her in this little thali place in Jodhpur. She was dresses in my student bedroom, and then I dropped out
saying, “Jeanne, I really like your idea, but if you want of university, and started Zazi.
to work with us, then you have to make some dresses.
We have to design some dresses together.” Then I drew I was 23, I had no business experience, no design ex-
perience, no fashion experience. I had no idea what I

Portraits 45 LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM

LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM 46 Portraits

was doing. I studied in Berlin, but I didn’t really study. We work with eight communities in five countries, these
I spent my days teaching movement classes in the park. are the social enterprises led by women, weavers, embroi-
My boyfriend at the time was making poetry on the derers, and natural dyers. We just give the shape, a shape
street. I was walking with bare feet in Berlin. I had hula that looks good on a lot of women and then we ask the
hoops with me all the time. I just came from such a non- women for colour combinations, fabric material, what
business world. Then to be in business, having to figure natural dyes they want to use. Last season we worked
out how to price, how to do stuff, how to pay taxes. I with a plant dye studio in Mumbai. It was owned by two
remember the first dresses, I had to bring them to two sisters. Every morning, they’d walk past the temples in
tailors on my street because they weren’t right yet. India and collect flowers left over from the prayers in
the morning, and then they’d dye the fabric with these
I’m not a designer. But I think creativity and sto- flowers. But they also have a deep knowledge of natural
ries have the power to change us. And I feel like fash- Ayurvedic dyes. And so they came up with the colours
ion is a silent, but also very loud woven story that we and Madhu came up with the embroidery; every single
all wear. dress tells their story.

I still work with Madhu every single day. Now she’s We work with this collective in Tajikistan and they
growing her organisation from five to 50 women and make these suzanis. Suzani is a Persian word for needle-
now we work with different communities led by women work. It’s like a big piece of textile that you normally
across Central Asia and Afghanistan, but also in Ghana. put on the bed. But we use them for coats. Suzani is
this love letter from mother to daughter. Before the
daughter gets married, the mother will start embroider-
ing, around nine months before, symbolising the cycles.
Every single colour, every single symbol that they em-
broider on it has a specific meaning. For example, in
Tajikistan, black thread on a white piece of cloth sym-
bolises life and death. The red flowers symbolise the joy
and moments you experience between life and death.
It’s like watermelon for abundance, pomegranates for
fertility. Everything has meaning.

For me, that’s the essence of sustainability. It doesn’t
matter how organic your cotton is, or how recycled
plastic your bathing suit is, in the end the pieces that
you carry and that you cherish are the most sustainable,
and those are the pieces that you feel a connection to. I
think as brands, we’ve shifted our gaze from the maker,
from the possibility of a real connection, to some model
that has absolutely no fricking connection to the textile
whatsoever. So, no wonder we cannot really connect
to the stories behind textiles, because we’re looking at
17-year-olds, photoshopped 17-year-olds instead of the
hands, the dreams, the wishes, the visions of the people
that really brought the textiles into existence.

I was in India for production in March 2020 and
then COVID happened. A woman from the EU called
to say, “You need to get out on Monday. India’s closing
the borders.” I had to get on the last evacuation plane
out. It was the last flight internationally that left In-
dia. I ended up in the Netherlands again at my second
mother’s house. But then I got offered the boat.

Last year, I got two rescue hens, now I have six. I
have six chickens and two bunnies. I live on my boat

Portraits 47 LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM

now. Relationships? I had an amazing relationship that
lasted for six years but that ended last year. We still talk.
I think right now it’s just a different time, not so much
a boy time. I think the world was very obviously saying,
“No, no, no. Now it’s just a different time for you.”

I mean, I’m 28, so I have lots of time. And my rela-
tionship with my father is good. I think with parents, I
mean, you, in some way, choose the stories you grow up
in. What Rumi said, the wound is where the light enters.

Bregje Sliepenbeek

Portraits 49 LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM

Bregje Sliepenbeek grew up in Poland but has found
her home in Amsterdam where she works in a studio
creating minimalist sculptural pieces made from metal.

Wo r d s
BREGJE SLIEPENBEEK

Interview & Photography
MADELEINE BOLLE

I grew up in Poland. I am from a big family, or at from Sweden, Iceland, and France, and they all moved
least, we were four children. But I always felt my home- without friends or family in Amsterdam, so we really
town was a bit too small, or too boring. I’d always want- stuck together. It was a close group. But, I think, eve-
ed to go to Amsterdam. rybody was also struggling a bit with so much freedom.
Like, you’re beginning, you’re just in your 20s, and have
My parents were probably creative in some way but no idea what you’re doing. And then you have to come
they didn’t pursue it. But my parents were always sup- up with stuff. And some were kind of good at it. While
portive of what I did. I had the freedom to just go and do others just completely panicked. So it was a little stress-
and be what I wanted. They were not like, “You should ful, but also fun, a whole mix of emotions. I think it’s a
step in our shoes,” you know. “You have to study law.” good school but you really have to handle the freedom
They were both lawyers. Instead, I went to art school. I because you can do everything. There are no assign-
don’t think they really understood what I was doing, but ments. It doesn’t mean that if you’re in jewellery that
they were like, “Go ahead. You will be fine.” you must do jewellery. When you’re in textiles, you can
write a book, or when you are in fine art, you can do a
My other siblings, they all studied at university. My fashion show. Even within the departments, you have
sister was a lawyer, but then she moved to Africa. Now the freedom to just do whatever you want to do.
she has opened a cinema with a bar in Nairobi.
I did audio visual, then I changed to jewellery de-
After getting my diploma from school at 16, I did sign because I wanted to do something with my hands.
this preparatory course in the arts. Then I went to Aus- I think jewellery is more like a sculpture, but the small-
tralia for a year, and when I returned to Europe, I moved ness of the size of jewellery doesn’t interest me. I like to
to Amsterdam, 16 years ago now, to study art at Rietveld
Academy. About half the students were from abroad,

LETTERS FROM AMSTERDAM 50 Portraits

make metal more movable or fluid,
more of a textile approach.

In 2018, I went to a residency in
Morocco where I learned to weave.
And then I wanted to weave with
metal. I started buying these chains
and weaving them, and it ended up
as my current work. So, it started
from weaving, and it ended up being
this work. It was personal. One thing
just led to another.

I live in Vista Park, Amsterdam,
which is close to the centre but a
perfect distance from everything. It’s
in a neighbourhood that’s not too
touristy. I have my studio in Bos en
Lommer, which is only a 12-minute
bike ride away. Sometimes, I think
about moving to Rotterdam or The
Hague because Amsterdam is get-
ting a bit overwhelming with all the
tourists. I mean, I’m very lucky with
my house and studio, but it’s getting
so hard for people to live here.