The last image in my phone’s camera roll is a screenshot of Mathieu van der Poel right after finishing Paris-Roubaix. What is the last thing you took a picture of? Probably drawing halos round the four heads on my ABBA 7-inch singles when I was a kid.ģ. What is the first piece of art you ever created? What is the first thing you do in the morning?Ģ. In the wake of the book’s release, De Potter answers 50 questions, delving further into the themes of the publication, as well as art, fashion, God, ghosts, the best advice he’s ever received and what he’d offer to those hoping to follow in his footsteps.ġ. “For some reason I wanted to honour that a bit more, without making it the subject … It’s who I am, so I thought it was the right time to explore it a lot more.” It’s not that obvious, but it’s always there,” he says. “Belgium, Flanders and Antwerp have always been a part of my work.
And more than any of his previous work, the book acknowledges where he comes from through the incorporation of Dutch words, on every single page, as well as images of Flemish landmarks in Antwerp, Ghent, and beyond. It’s not as crass as a message of hope, it’s just a sense of serenity.”Īs much as The Vanity of Certain Flowers Part Two is a response to lockdown, it is also a product of it: the work was produced entirely in Belgium, using Belgian models due to the travel restrictions. “It was an ode to the morning and awakening and reawakening, so it made sense to me to revisit this during lockdown. “This first book was completely about self-isolation and self-improvement in isolation,” he says. Speaking over the phone from his home in Antwerp, Belgian, the artist explains how this new release represents a direct response to the events of the past 18 months – namely the Covid-19 pandemic, and the social upheaval and isolation that ensued. This autumn, De Potter has released his fourth book, the conceptual follow-up to his Vanity of Certain Flowers book, which was published in 2016. And De Potter isn’t just respected for his work in the digital realm, he has created several books, all of which are highly popular – and highly prized – objects. And while he made his name collaborating with Raf Simons in the early 00s, and Kanye West, among other musicians, more recently, he is a legend in his own right, with a legion of devoted fans and followers – previously on Tumblr (RIP) and now on Instagram. Combining elements of photography, film, poetry, graphic design and even, arguably, performance, his work is a world of its own.
As an artist, Peter De Potter’s visual language is as distinctive as it comes.