GRANDMOTHER
TEXTILE- AND VIDEOINSTALLATION
Part of my solo exhibition If Only You Knew (Je moest eens weten/Bir Bilsen) at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam is my video installation with tufted objects. In that installation I turn my gaze inward and examine my memories of my grandmother. How can you keep the past in focus when memories fade?
I was 14 when my grandmother died and since then I have had an idealized image of her. When producing work for If Only You Knew, I realized that each of the stories told by the women of her generation added a new aspect to my memories of my grandmother. Did my grandma have the same dreams?
Memories of my grandmother also inspired me to create works attempting to convey a physical and tactile sense of the emotional warmth I received from her – something impossible to do via photography. Using tufting as a technique, I reproduced the colours and patterns of my grandmother’s clothes and recreated my grandma’s embrace in organically shaped furniture where visitors can cuddle down and experience for themselves the warmth of my grandmother’s lap.
This work was created through an inspiring and special collaboration with Karen Zeedijk and Esther Onijs from the TextielLab, who helped craft the tufted patterns of the seating objects, and Noor Bouterse, who upholstered and assembled both the seating objects and the cushions on the floor.
GRANDMOTHER
TEXTILE- AND VIDEOINSTALLATIONPart of mij solo exhibition If Only You Knew (Je moest eens weten/Bir Bilsen) at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam is my video installation with tufted objects. In that installation I turn my gaze inward and examine my memories of my grandmother. How can you keep the past in focus when memories fade?
I was 14 when my grandmother died and since then I have had an idealized image of her. When producing work for If Only You Knew, I realized that each of the stories told by the women of her generation added a new aspect to my memories of my grandmother. Did my grandma have the same dreams?
Memories of my grandmother also inspired me to create works attempting to convey a physical and tactile sense of the emotional warmth I received from her – something impossible to do via photography. Using tufting as a technique, I reproduced the colours and patterns of my grandmother’s clothes and recreated my grandma’s embrace in organically shaped furniture where visitors can cuddle down and experience for themselves the warmth of my grandmother’s lap.
This work was created through an inspiring and special collaboration with Karen Zeedijk and Esther Onijs from the TextielLab, who helped craft the tufted patterns of the seating objects, and Noor Bouterse, who upholstered and assembled both the seating objects and the cushions on the floor.
