Unknown x creative journeys - tom haakman

Polina Nosova: What motivates your choice to explore religious iconography and themes in your work?

_{Tom Haakman: I think it’s based on a mix of factors. One thing that really fascinates me is how religion can profoundly change people and their relationships. I’ve seen from close how someone with a strong scientific mindset can suddenly embrace faith with great intensity, completely reshaping their life and priorities. It’s remarkable how such a shift can ripple through families, sometimes creating tension or redefining roles. This dynamic—between belief, science, and family—really sticks with me.}

^{The second factor is this mixture of science and technology. How does our society-- a society in which we base everything off of science-- exist with religion mixed in that, it doesn't make any sense.} 

^{And lastly, I grew up religious, but then I lost interest in it. That process was also pretty interesting. As in, how you lose all of that and how your view on religion is moved by science, but also by the internet. So, the internet kind of mixes in all that. These are the three things that really motivate me to make works about it.} 

^{As for the iconography, it is just so beautiful. The icons are so strong in our society now, but at the same time, I think it is a somewhat forgotten subject when people think of society or art. Popularity of religion is going up and down, but I feel like there is more space for different types of people to really exist because religion is less prevalent.}   

PN: Does making these types of works help you work through these thoughts and contradictions about religion?

^{TH: Yes, some do. I made the glass dome artwork, which is really about the fragility of life-- how breakable it is, because you don’t live in heaven anymore. So, it is really like a work about myself, how I see life. My family is also losing their religion, so now we can really talk about it. It is an interesting change.} 

PN: What is, in your opinion, the effect of contrasting religious and technological imagery? 

^{TH: When there are two entities existing separately from each other in a society, people won’t think about them as much, especially with the internet’s existence.  I think these subjects are a little bit gray for some people, so when you glitch a cross, you mix up the symbolism of religion with technology and you make it more pronounced. And when you put them together, some dots will be connected between the two seemingly separate things. Art can really make this connection visible. So, it is a nice image in itself, but it can also allow people to consider these connections.}

PN: We see new technological developments almost every day, like the swift emergence of AI. Do these developments impact your work?

^{TH: I think it is more prominent in the production itself, like 3D printing. The glitches evoke the image of old technology, like an old computer or an old television. But this type of imagery signals to a time where I was losing my religion. So this new technology that we have, like 3D printing, is bringing this old technology in the now, in its own time frame.} 

^{As for AI, I don’t think it's there yet for art. I visited a church recently where they had an AI Jesus, so you could talk to Jesus through a screen. I was thinking about things like that, but it is too simple and too straightforward.} 

PN: What do you think art is able to teach that other mediums cannot? What has it taught you?

^{TH: The most inspiring part about art for me is seeing the piece in real life. When you have an idea in your mind, or you’ve written it down, it can be so different when you actually see it as a tangible object. You can imagine Jesus glitching, but seeing it in person is totally different. It gains its own presence. Putting two contrasting images together can make them bring each other out, making the ideas so much stronger.} 

PN: Can you tell me a bit about your process? Do you have the concept ready before you make the final piece, or do you follow your intuition more? 

^{TH: Most of the time I start out with a concept and then I think about how I want to finish it. Some concepts grow from others, like with the glitching. I created the first glitch, and then I started thinking about other glitches. So, I always like starting out with a concept and making art with it. Sometimes there are little adjustments to make, but most of the time the base idea is there.} 

PN: Does the process of creating a piece give you new insights about the original concept?

^{TH: Sometimes an idea can be really big in your head but then you create it and you’re like I don’t know if it’s really necessary, or I am not sure if I really want to explain it like this. Sometimes I remove more of the concept and just present the sculpture as a piece of itself.}

PN: So you have an idea and a meaning behind a piece, but seeing it in real life gives it more meaning?

^{TH: Yeah, that’s why I always like to make little scale models and then a big model, and then I keep it in the corner of my living room for a couple of months. I made a piece, it is called “Reflections”, and I ended up liking the piece itself more than the initial idea. Sometimes this can happen in a good way, your idea gets stronger.} 

PN: Are there other things you would like to explore in your work besides religion and technology? Have you already? 

^{TH: I did some, but they didn't end up as well. I always have some different ideas, for example, I made a fountain of youth. It is really based on the whole idea of growing up and how your view on life changes. Sometimes I have an idea and I sketch it out, and I think, woah, this is really nice. Then I spend months on the big model and then it’s finished and it may not be as strong as I thought. So, yeah I thought about making other things, and I still think about exploring other ideas, but not right now. I think I am mostly motivated to make religious sculptures because there is so much going on with religion right now which is not being explored by other artists. With religion I can create all sorts of ideas without having to think about what the other artists are already doing, so as not to get stuck in the whole matrix of all the other artists. It is a really free subject and I just really like it. It is also close to me, like technology and social media are also close to me but not as close as what I feel about religion. It is just easy to talk about something that’s closer to me.} 

PN: And what are you working on right now? What are your plans for the future? 

^{TH: Right now, I am just really busy with making additions to my work. I made a mold out of some pieces and they got a little broken so I am fixing that. For the future, I want to work more with antiques, maybe get funding for it. I bought some old wood sculpting works and cut them in half, put them in front of each other and made a picture which the computer then filled up the blank holes. So, you have a woodwork from the 1700s and a computer from 2024 fills in the blank, so it gives a different meaning to old works through new technologies. That is something I really want to do more of. But also, I am aware that working with holy sculptures can be difficult for some people. Respect is really important to me, and I already make religious sculptures and I am already changing them, but I always want to keep it respectful. I think when you cut off the head of a Jesus sculpture you’re disrespecting it. It’s knowing how to walk the fine line of being respectful, because it is really easy to disrespect religion, but also show something new. It’s good to be respectful because you want to reach other people, so you have to show some understanding to their feelings. That is important for me.} 

PN: What would your dream exhibition look like?

^{TH: I like church exhibitions. One of my works is going to be permanently in a church, so that is really nice. I really like to be in historic places, where there are works from the 17th or 18th century, and now my work is going to be there too, so I really get to connect with the old spaces.}

PN: I am imagining your work among ruins of an ancient town. 

^{TH: Yeah, I also made a sculpture now with stones from a ruin, so that was pretty nice. I had a little exhibition for it, it like an auction in a church, but in the end I got to take it home because it didn’t come to an auction. The problem was that people didn’t really notice the work because it was in a church. It was a little bit sad but also nice because it got to be exhibited in a church.} 

PN: Do you like to have music playing at your exhibitions?

^{TH: I don’t think so. I am also an engineer but I never mix my art with engineering, and I used to DJ a lot, so I never mix my DJing with my art either. But I have been thinking about sounds. I like gospel music, I used to play gospel music. I had an idea of putting little speakers inside the sculptures, and put some microphones near the pedestals, so it feels like you’re walking in a church; every step you take is being echoed back. But not music, although I really like church music. My dad used to be in a choir in the church, not like the old one, but more like Dutch songs which you could connect to the church.} 

PN: What do you hope that people take away from your work?

^{TH: I always like when people see your art and they think about it, and take those thoughts back home and keep on thinking about it there. Sometimes people have discussions with their family members where they’re like, oh I never thought about it this way, or, oh I want to discuss this more. There were some people at Dutch Design Week, I think around 15 people, from the church and I think we were discussing the work for about an hour. Some people disliked the works, and I thought, okay, let them have their discussion, I am not really gonna interfere. In the end, one woman from their group said that there were some mixed feelings.} 

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