Together with Kixos from Emmen and the Chinese toyist Clamaoing, Dejo hopes to have the artwork in the hotel room completely ready by the end of this week, with a special layer of lacquer as the finishing touch. “That is necessary to protect the work.
What catches the eye in the mural are four crazy sheep, busy, the artist explains, with ‘sheep yoga’. The story is intended as a metaphor, as is always the case with works of art by the Toyists. “So you see sheep doing crazy things, but they have a lot of fun together. And they are surrounded by all kinds of animals that watch.” According to Dejo, the group of ‘mad sheep’ symbolizes the group of people who do not follow the herd, but choose their own way. “Looking for change and for a more fun, better and healthier life.”
The fact that sheep mainly attract attention in the artwork is a conscious choice. It refers to the history of the Brink, which used to be grazed by sheep. “When we spoke to Tetsia as hotel manager about the artwork, she pointed out the historical relationship of the village with horses and sheep, so we took that into account. My friend Clamaoing designed the design, she does a lot of yoga. That’s how the idea for sheep yoga was born.”
For the Toyists, it is ‘another special job’, transforming the wall into a work of art in the recognizable playful and colorful style of the international art movement, full of dots and clean lines. Although the masked artists have faced more complex and greater challenges, such as painting the enormous gas sphere in Emmen, known as De Stip. Or the transformation of a gigantic water storage tank in Iceland into a public work of art. “But even if this is the umpteenth project with which we are visible to the public again, it is always special for ourselves to be able to make it. Hopefully others will see it that way too,” says Dejo.
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