Tiana Richards

Prof. Ethan Youngerman

Writing the Essay: The World Through Art

January 29th, 2020

Teun Hocks Representation and Interpretation

A man walks across the desert. Painted sand dunes appear like waves in a turbulent ocean

behind him. The sky above this desert of sand is almost the same color, but slightly more yellow.

There is no blue in this sky. It is painted too, fit with a circular sun that looks more like a dull

moon. It is but a pale yellow circle. Our walking man is not painted though. It is a photograph of

Teun Hocks, the photographer and painter of this piece of art. Hocks is not dressed like someone

you’d imagine to be traversing an endless desert. Rather he is dressed like a classic businessman

or office worker, donning a white button up shirt, black slacks, dress shoes, a black tie, and

slinging a coat over his back. He is even wearing a wristwatch, as if the harsh desert cares about

keeping appointments. Hocks is also wiping sweat off his forehead and has his sleeves rolled up,

showing that he is exhausted from the heat and the walking.

The catch? Hocks is walking on a treadmill. He is making no progress in his trek across

the desert, just standing in one place. The ground the treadmill is placed on is part of a

photograph too, realistic in its brown grooves and small rocks. It is planted firmly in the reality

of the situation, separate from the smooth, perfect painted sand dunes in the background. There

are white marks on the treadmill as well, showing that it has been well worn either by Hocks

himself or those who walked this “path” before him. The treadmill is planted into the ground

with two wooden posts, causing the inference that this treadmill and those who walk it are meant

to stay put.
 One interpretation of this art piece is that it represents the hubris and self righteousness of

the modern businessman. Members of privileged classes usually do the most movement of their

bodies in gym like environments. After 9-5 jobs the people who work them will go to gyms in

which they pay for memberships or yoga studios in which they pay for classes. This recreational

physical exertion, coupled with a days work, is often referred to as the “grind”. Young

professionals are “struggling for success” but choosing to partake in this struggle. The

comfortable, air conditioned grind that they are putting themselves through is seen through their

eyes as a Herculean task. Paperwork, meetings, and then hitting the weights is perceived as

equivalent to wandering the desert in our modern society. This, of course, is not true. It is rather

a labor we have constructed for ourselves. Just as Hocks has painted his sand dunes and beating

desert sun over the real ground he stood on, we paint grander and more difficult challenges to put

ourselves through.

On the other hand, this art piece could be interpreted as a metaphor for how one can

struggle to make progress in their life. The man in the painting is exhausted but still nowhere

near finishing his journey. In fact he has not made it forward at all, yet he is tired as if he has. In

our lives we try to make difficult but positive changes, whether it be in personal relationships or

in one's career. Yet in focusing on the difficulty of it, one can merely end up walking in circles

and making no progress at all on their goal. You can strive for something for so long without

realizing it isn’t actually moving you forward. This will wear you out and prevent you from

taking the steps you need to take to the finish line. The man in the painting is focusing on the

wrong struggle, and is now too worn out and defeated to make his way across the desert he has

found himself in.