A Voice from the Fireplace, 2019
Multi-media installation
The exhibition A Voice from the Fireplace is about the connection between inside and outside, and specifically about the chimney. The theme of coming together and finding new ways of living together is at the core of this project. The chimney is traditionally the heart of the house. The walls were built around the chimney. However, it is also the only unguarded entrance to the house. That is why mythical figures often enter the house through the chimney. The series is about invisibility, breath, infection, viruses, and smoke. The invisible that penetrates and enriches the skin. The subcutaneous.
The diptych Brandmuren is based on tiles of fire walls. The tiles in the series refer to smoke and fire. Brandmuren II, for example, shows a blueprint of a chimney, hands black of soot, English twisted chimneys, and smoke. Also, there are references to various forms of (invisible) infection/possession and poisoning, for instance by bacteria, demons, and oleander plants. The oleander, also called ‘demon herb’, is a recurring motif. It is an elegant, but extremely toxic plant. The leaves, if they were to be eaten, would cause cardiac arrest; they contain glycosides that the heart cannot handle. I processed this kind of specific information visually and textually in the tiles.
The two sculptures, both with the title Hexapod, Chimney Pot, show typical Dutch chimney pots: a pot that protects the chimney entrance against, among other things, birds, leaves, and rain. The various wooden blocks on which the pots stand are based on chimneys that can be found in Noord-Holland (a province in the Netherlands), for instance in farmhouses. The black bars or legs, made of black MDF, depict the beams of the roof, but also refers to the legs of an insect or bacterium. The chimney protects a blue glass cast of an anatomical model of a heart, Transplant Exposed.
The wall sculpture Burning Oleander consists of a paper oleander branch and a piece of orange mouth-blown glass that refers to a flame. The poisonous smoke from the plant infects the heart.