The Netherlands, 1991
Thesis: Where Else To Draw From
When Memory Enters, a Midwife as a Metaphor (The Pretense of Presence)
In my graduation work I had a personal question of what fiction we create when we remember. How are we shaped by our past, and how does that past over time transform into fiction? At first my work may appear as very personal but in fact it offers the audience a moment to reflect. The personal stories and narratives blend together fragments that both reflect and absorb the residual traces of our very being. In “When Memory Enters, a Midwife as a Metaphor (The Pretense of Presence)” the role of the mother as caretaker and the child as the receiver of care are stripped away. All elements within this family are tilting, shifting, finding a ground to settle. The objects are both fragility and strength, violence and care. Building up and crumbling down, the work absorbs and is ejecting. Just like my personal memory, it’s searching for a balance between fiction and reality.
