Figure with Feathered Headdress

Figure with Feathered Headdress (2010) by Berend Strik addresses one of the most ancient forms of body decoration — feathers worn on the head as a sign of status, identity, or spiritual power.

Feathered headdresses appear across cultures: from the Egyptian uraeus to Native American war bonnets to tropical bird plumage in fashion. To wear feathers on the head is to take on qualities of the bird — lightness, flight, transcendence.

Strik's textile interventions connect the feather to his own practice: his stitching is like feathers — individual marks that, accumulated, create a larger whole. Feathers also carry connotations of angels and winged messengers — raising the wearer to quasi-divine status.

Sources: Galerie Fons Welters