For the exhibition, I took as a departure point a questioning attitude toward universalistic ideas, which we constantly encounter in support of liberal values of equality and unity, but that often end up obscuring the actual differences and heterogeneity that define our society. One attempt was a cluster of three sculptures called “Bearers“ (refer to portfolio, page 12-14), inspired by “Three Ecologies” by French philosopher Félix Guattari (Guattari 2000). This work extends the definition of ecology from a holistic concept to one that also encompasses social relations and human subjectivity. I visualized this concept by breaking a circle in three fragments, each fragment existing in its singularity while continuing to be part of a whole.

Another attempt to visualize the dynamics of societal relations was a figure called Intermission, which is propelled by two opposite movements at once, both an outward and an inward momentum. I rendered these movements by imprinting a self-hiding gesture that creates a hollow space in the sculpture, while sculpting the extrovert movement extending in an outer direction. The split nature of things is paradoxical especially when applied to the social roles required to perform in society, which are often rigid and therefore do not match our various inner landscapes. Even the most triumphal of figures hides a backdrop of frustrations and fears. Arguably, it is the combination of success and failure that turns a character into a human being, and the precarious balance between the two that defines human existence. Additionally, I hung pictures on the wall of the exhibition space depicting different types of audiences, some of these I staged and photographed, while others are retrieved from my own family archive and include pictures of my parents, who at the time were performing circus artists. I used the pictures to keep building on the idea of identity as a performance that happens under constant observation and outer pressure. Through these works I started to explore how to bring to the surface the invisible layers of identity. For my future work, I want to bring this concept further by applying it to the hidden, underrepresented aspects of human history.

photography by Heden Gallery and Steven de Kok