The Cadence
The Cadence, a Brussels-based mask and costume designer.
Their work is a visual diary, focused on capturing specific moments and emotions in their life. The collection of (mostly) self-portraits explores the topic of expressing yourself while carefully curating your image. It reflects the tension between craving for connection, and fear of judgement. As a result, each work is a combination of real, spontaneous emotions, mixed with a stylized attempt at controlling one's image.
Putting on a mask and changing your appearance is a powerful moment of self-discovery. Playing a character allows you to find new perspectives and explore your feelings in safety. It is particularly useful for queer people, who usually don't see themselves reflected in popular media.
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Inspiration
“I'm mostly inspired by people I have met or seen myself. Listening and relating to stories told by people close to me gives me a reason to express those shared emotions and work through them myself. Because of that, I find my closest friends to have the biggest influence on me and therefore, my art.”
“One person that continuously inspires me is someone that I have seen as a teenager living in a grey, boring town. Their appearance was breaking every possible norm set by a cis-centred society. Even though people around them were openly laughing, pointing fingers and aggressively commenting, they would proudly walk on the street, appearing unbothered. As someone experiencing a lot of self doubt and fear of how I'm perceived, this memory always inspires me to explore and express myself.”
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Creative process
“I enjoy how personal and spontaneous it is. Each work is a result of thoughts, emotions or situations that I can't stop thinking about, which leads me to imagining them as simple characters that get sketched out. As my understanding of the project's inspiration gets better, the work slowly gets more nuanced and finally finished. It is a visual of me working through problems and arriving at some conclusion. That way, the projects go through many changes and the final product differs from the original idea.”
Picture by Kacper Bęski
Picture by Kamil Winnicki
