Bio in het Nederlands is hier te lezen.
Daphne Depassé (1973), is a Dutch creator, writer and artist, based in Amsterdam.
I am a maker and writer. My artistic practice centres on identity, the influence of context and perspective, and the space beyond fixed frameworks.
I am curious about how we become who we are, what shapes the way we see, and what happens when we look differently at something that seems self-evident. Personal stories, experiences, observations and context often form the starting point. Health and living with a disability have sharpened my questions around identity, autonomy, vulnerability and inclusion. What happens when your body, your possibilities or your future can no longer be taken for granted, and you have to reconsider who you are and how you relate to the world around you? This experience is not a separate theme, but runs as an underlying current through part of my work.
Through my work, I try to open something up: another perspective, a question, a sense of recognition, or perhaps a feeling of unfamiliarity.
No Boxes
My work deliberately has no fixed style or technique. I do not start with a medium, but with an idea, story or question, and then look for the form that best fits it.
That might become a painting, drawing, object, or mixed media, digital imagery, language or sound. Sometimes something calls for a flat surface, sometimes for material or space.
I am also interested in form itself. What happens to the same story, experience or idea when it is expressed differently? What remains recognisable, what changes, and what new meaning might emerge as a result?
Meaning determines form. No Boxes.
Background
I grew up in a family of artists, with a father, who was a sculptor. My own path towards an autonomous artistic practice, however, did not lead directly through the art world.
From 2007 onwards, I worked independently for many years as a researcher, writer and designer, particularly in the fields of creative thinking, design thinking and innovation. I developed two thinking methods, Plan B and Factor K, and wrote five books.
Looking back, I see a clear thread running through all of this: curiosity, questioning assumptions, making connections, shifting perspectives and looking for possibilities that are not immediately visible.
I bring that way of looking into my art. Only now, there is no problem that needs to be solved and no useful answer that needs to emerge. Something is allowed to arise that unsettles, surprises, questions, or simply opens another window.
Personal experiences have further sharpened my questions around identity, autonomy, vulnerability, equality and inclusion. They surface in my work in different ways – sometimes explicitly, sometimes only as an underlying layer. I wrote my fifth Dutch book about this subject: BAM!
A practice in motion
Visual work and writing are not separate worlds for me. They stem from the same curiosity. Sometimes a question becomes an image. Sometimes an object or a text. And sometimes I need different forms to get closer to something.
At first, my work was mainly digital, audiovisual and textual. Gradually, I began working increasingly in physical forms, through drawing, painting, paper, mixed media and objects.
Material itself then became part of the investigation. Texture, scale, light, imperfection, space and the position of the viewer can add something that does not emerge otherwise.
I work intuitively and through exploration. Not always knowing in advance what something should look like is part of that process. I experiment, combine, change direction and sometimes start again. The making process can sharpen an idea, but it can also take it somewhere unexpected.
That freedom to move between forms and techniques is essential to my practice.
Alongside my visual practice, I write weekly on Substack about what happens between the lines of everyday life: about identity, context, perspective and the things that seem self-evident — until you look at them a little longer.