4 Hats

4 Hats (2024) by Berend Strik takes as its subject the hat — a garment that simultaneously covers and displays, protects and announces identity.

The hat has been a subject in portraiture for centuries — from medieval chaperons to Renaissance caps to modern fedoras and baseball caps. Hats mark profession (chef's hat, policeman's cap), status (crown), affiliation (team cap), and personality (any hat chosen as statement).

Four hats suggest four identities, four roles, four ways of presenting oneself to the world. Strik's work frequently explores how people construct identity through clothing and accessories — the self as performed, constructed, assembled from available materials.

The textile nature of hats — made from fabric, felt, straw — connects directly to Strik's own textile practice. His fabric additions to photographs are like hats added to figures: they change the identity of what they cover while remaining separate from the underlying form.

Sources: Galerie Fons Welters