WaiWaispace: “Wouter, How did you come up with the idea of building a tank?
WDR: “Children, kids and toddlers are known for their incredible creativity and imagination. An object as simple as a branch of a tree is enough to play around with all day, make up stories or use it as a submarine to conquer unknown areas of the cellar.
The difference with grown-ups is tremendous. Where does all that imagination go as we grow up? Do we lose the ability to imagine, to let our creativity flow? Maybe society dictates who we are and how we should behave and think by kicking every last sparkle of creativity out of the human body?
Is the social pressure of “behaving” so big, that we rather keep our thoughts to ourselves, and avoid the remarks and looks given by the people around us? Or do we simply use our creativity for other purposes?
In order to find some answers or at least start a discussion, I looked for an example in my own environment. During the first Gulf War, I was 8 years old at the time, images of the war were all over: in the papers, on television,... Build out of paperboard and tape, I made the perfect toy to play with: a tank.
TANK W is an exact copy of the original paperboard tank, this time built with the materials and techniques I mainly use today: technical drawings, CNC, multiplex, ...
TANK W is a statement, a tribute to creativity.
WaiWaiSpace: “The second Gulf War is an ongoing conflict. Is there also a link with Tank W?”
WDR: “Absolutely. There is a gap of more than 10 years between the first and second Gulf War. I was about 8 years old when I made the paperboard tank. Now I’m 26, which means that if I would have lived in Iraq I would be going through my second war right now. That’s an amazing thought. Above all Tank W also visualizes the fact that people have hard time learning from the past. It seems like history keeps repeating itself.”