253. To Be or Not to Be? by Domstad Rudie

About "253. To Be or Not to Be?"

by Domstad Rudie

About the artwork

This digital artwork shows a playful and minimalist composition that combines wordplay and visual simplicity. Against a bright, plain blue background, a stylised pencil drawing, composed of simple geometric shapes and solid colours, takes centre stage. The pencil is red and white in colour with a black tip and a pink eraser at the bottom, finished with a grey metal ferrule. The clean lines and symmetrical design emphasise the digital nature of the work.

Above the pencil is the text, "2B or not 2B?" in a friendly, rounded font. This sentence is a humorous pun on the famous line "To be or not to be" from Shakespeare's Hamlet, but with a nod to the pencil type "2B". This creates a double meaning: a philosophical reference to existence on the one hand, and an everyday association with drawing materials on the other.

The work subtly evokes the spirit of Belgian surrealist René Magritte, especially his iconic painting La trahison des images ("Ceci n'est pas une pipe"). As with Magritte, this digital work also plays with the relationship between image, language and meaning. Showing a pencil with a text that simultaneously designates an object and asks a deeper existential question creates an ironic tension between what we see and what we read. This makes the artwork both accessible and philosophically stimulating.

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Finished on: 14 June 2025