Marieke Dench’s new body of paintings is a contemplation of happiness across diverse national geographies. Known for her ability to translate statistical data into striking visual artworks, Dench here transposes the facts and figures of happiness-by-continent into the form of billowing clouds. Traditionally associated with divine presence, change and interconnectedness, clouds are increasingly seen as symbols of the information age.

Dench plays with the ambiguity of the form as both an image of communality but also one where the hard realities revealed by information feeds are brought unflinchingly to light. “Choose your continent of birth wisely”, the artist admonishes. “Europe is the happiest; Africa is the unhappiest”. Vibrant colors are used to represent nations with higher happiness scores—blues, greens, and yellows, each with underlying data streams that contrast the natural and the digital.

The paintings enable viewers not only to understand global happiness data but to ‘feel’ it in the colours and diaphanous flows. Such an approach challenges viewers to reflect on what happiness means on both a personal and societal level, making the art not just a reflection of statistics, but also a tool for social dialogue. The works draw on key social markers including literacy, gender equality, family size and age dependency.

Dr Damian Smith

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