Head of Reconstruction

Tessel de Zwart received a grant to develop new work. Head of Reconstruction explores decay, identity, and the impact of time on the body. In a world where ageing is polished away, my work focuses on the tension between transformation and resistance. Using fragments of my own face and body, I create sculptures that reveal the layered nature of change and decay. As part of the first smartphone generation, I grew up in a digital age where manipulated perfection has become the norm. This project exposes the complex relationship between physicality, digital editing, and the constant pressure to capture and filter oneself.

Tessel’s work explores the interplay between transformation, transience, and our relationship with nature. Through print design, photography, sculpture, textiles, and installation, she examines beauty ideals, digitalisation, and the balance between resistance and surrender to growth and decay. By making traces of time and change visible, she invites an alternative view of impermanence: not as a shortcoming, but as a meaningful and poetic process.