Episode 9

Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Dimensions: 170,0cm x 110,0cm
Archival pigment print, window frame, vinyl sticker

EPISODE SYNOPSIS

Buy a bag, rent a bike, and download the app. Welcome to Speat. Now you can earn quick cash by delivering the fresh food orders that people crave - all while cruising around your favourite town. Grab your bike and clock in whenever you want - for an hour, a weekend, or throughout the week. You are now your own boss. Between picking up and dropping off deliveries, it’s just you and the road. So, bump your music, enjoy the outdoors, and deliver with Speat!

While some self-employed delivery riders enjoy the freedom this job offers, many others are stuck in a system that lacks a safety net. In between deliveries they are waiting. Unpaid. Either for a new order, or for a meal to be prepared. Like ants, they race to drop off their ‘free-delivery’ meals on time. But what’s the actual take-away?

VIVARIUM

Vivarium is an ongoing series of constructed dioramas, called Episodes. With his socially engaged tableaux Hardy studies the complexity and coherence of today’s pressing issues. In the creation of these worlds Hardy fuses his imagination, observations, personal memories and true events. Every Episode has its own topic, such as conspiracy thinking (Episode 11), modern working conditions (Episode 9, Free Delivery), racial profiling (Episode 6, On Guard) and gender roles (Episode 4 and 5, Cinema Il Sogno).

Vivarium is an ongoing project, started in 2018. Every world you see once existed in Hardy’s studio. For each Episode, he meticulously designs, builds and photographs a new world. Hardy creates meaningful narratives through the use of characters, objects and their composition. The final works are full of detail and displayed life-size - one-to-one - in a window frame, sparking a direct encounter between the viewer and subject. 

It takes 3 to 4 months to complete a tableau. By addressing a different topic in each Episode while applying a consistent working method, Vivarium is an expanding multiverse of portals where life takes place.

In addition, Vivarium Self-Portraits provide a glimpse into Hardy’s constructed worlds and working-method. They are rooted in his urge to understand and empathize with his characters.