Once they were separated in art class, because their work was too much alike, sitting together dipping their brush in the same dirty water. Ten years later they proved inseparable and returned as the four armed monster called Pipsqueak was here!!! With their similar ideas and corresponding visual language it was inevitable.

Now, after five years, they are happy to return at Next Street Gallery in Paris with the show ‘Life in pieces’.

The philosophy of the work has evolved gradually over this last period but the main focus remains the same.

The works of PWH!!! often include a child in interaction or in the presence of another animal. This is not without reason. It has been proven that people feel the most empathy with images of children, animals en women, in that order. This gives PWH!!! the opportunity to get their message across. The children and animals in the paintings of Pipsqueak was here!!! are staring you in the face, by looking straight into the eyes, hereby two people are notifying each other of their existence and are becoming responsible for one another.

The backgrounds in the paintings of Pipsqueak was here!!! are full of small images in a punk setting. They use these images as words to tell their story. There are signs of fire, images of ice, bees and warnings for infectious substance or other hazards. There are little creatures pointing or being upset and there are words or small sentences to warn you. They look like little advertisements to appeal to the consumer society, but only to warn you to consume less.

There is a profound connection between consumer society, the politics of power, and the mechanisms of desire. The promise of a good life in terms of happiness, well-being and the success of an individual presumes that we have to have more stuff. But this growth doesn’t really come without consequences. We act in a reckless way, using more natural resources, taking more space and leaving less nature for other inhabitants on this planet.

Economics and nature with all its inhabitants can’t be treated as separate organisms. A relatively recent development of insight within philosophy, the arts, science, politics and law seem to point to an end to the view of man and the world as we have known it for centuries. The image of man in which man stands at the top of the hierarchy as an intelligent, free and autonomous being in a world in which nature, animals and technology are there to serve him.

The world is one living creature and we have to treat all pieces in life as one.