Tinkebell
Goes, NL, 1979
Tinkebell, alias Katinka Simonse, completed her studies at the department of Design of the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam in 2005. In 2009, in collaboration with the artist/designer Coralie Vogelaar, she published a compilation of the many hate mails she has received in a book entitled ‘Dearest Tinkebell’.
Tinkebell became famous (and infamous) overnight in 2005 because of the handbag that she made from her dead cat, Pinkeltje, after breaking the animal’s neck and then skinning him. This led to much discussion. Does making a handbag from a cat constitute cruelty to animals? Then what about a leather belt that’s made from a cow’s hide? Or a jumper made from sheep’s wool? Her work ‘Save the pets’ (2008), which involved 95 hamsters running around an Amsterdam art gallery in hamster balls, also led to heated discussions.
Such provocative acts are Tinkebell’s way of revealing modern society’s blind spots. She confronts her public with their hypocrisy regarding the suffering of animals and our consumption of them. She has extreme methods for exposing present-day morality and the way in which society is developing. In her most recent project series, entitled ‘Save the world’, she intervenes all over the world in a (symbolic) attempt to save it.