Operating loudly and reflexively, this provocatively-named collective make statement installations, performances and interventions sourced from the dark recesses of consumer culture under the “Kimberly Clark” moniker. But who is the titular Kimberly – a porn star? A hygiene company? In fact, the name comes from when two of the collective’s three members, Dutch-born Iris van Dongen and Ellemieke Schoenmaker, were teenagers. Should they be apprehended while travelling on public transport without paying, Schoenmaker’s alias would be “Kimberly Clark” (when sleek’s portrait was taken, the latter was away in her Rotterdam hometown).
Hijacking the popular vernacular that has been a continuous theme in their attention-grabbing practice. Iris and third member Eveline van de Griend are both artists whose independent work utilises slower techniques – intricate painting and drawing – while working as Kimberly Clark they “felt it was necessary to do something opposite, or different, to keep the blood running.” So far the collective have been responsible for bombastic projects including making a three-dimensional portrait of a woman sitting on a Louis Vuitton bag and holding up her hand for small change, a frenetic and hedonistic video entitled “Crusade Rotterdam”, and a performance where they walked around a shopping arcade dressed as a beheaded woman, as if wearing a high-end Halloween costume.
Though the pieces could be read as scathing critiques on the fashion industry and frivolous consumer culture, Iris explains that they are not interested in moralising, but instead injecting humour and distance. Kimberly Clark, she adds, is more “a reflection than a criticism”. But what a reflection…
Text by Susanna Davies-Crook