Episode 9

Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Dimensions: 170,0cm x 110,0cm
Transparency in light-box, window frame, vinyl sticker

EPISODE SYNOPSIS

Buy a bag, rent a bike, and download the app. Welcome to Speat. Now you can earn quick cash by delivering the fresh food orders that people crave - all while cruising around your favourite town. Grab your bike and clock in whenever you want - for an hour, a weekend, or throughout the week. You are now your own boss. Between picking up and dropping off deliveries, it’s just you and the road. So, bump your music, enjoy the outdoors, and deliver with Speat!

While some self-employed delivery riders enjoy the freedom this job offers, many others are stuck in a system that lacks a safety net. In between deliveries they are waiting. Unpaid. Either for a new order, or for a meal to be prepared. Like ants, they race to drop off their ‘free-delivery’ meals on time. But what’s the actual take-away?

VIVARIUM

Vivarium is an ongoing series of constructed dioramas, called Episodes. In the creation of these worlds Hardy fuses his imagination, personal memories and true events into ‘purposeful fiction’. Together, Vivarium’s Episodes explore the coherence and complexity of our zeitgeist.

For each Episode, Hardy designs, builds and photographs a new world in his studio. His photomontages are shown life-size - one-to-one - in a lightbox with a window frame, resulting in hyper-realistic works that spark a direct encounter between the viewer and the subject. 

As Hardy places one or more characters in a meticulously arranged setting, he merges ambivalent, melancholic scenes of private moments in the public, with social issues such as conspiracy thinking, racial profiling, and pre-defined gender identities. By addressing a different topic in each Episode while applying a consistent working method, Vivarium is an expanding multiverse of portals where life takes place.

Each constructed tableau takes 3 to 4 months to complete. Vivarium is an ongoing project that Hardy started in 2018.