With Love From Batik Babe
2005GEM, Museum for Contemporary Art, Den Haag (NL), 2005
With Love from Batik Babe, exhibition view, 2005
20m x 15m x 4m
Installation with mural, work on paper, paintings and object
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
With Love from Batik Babe, exhibition view, 2005
20m x 15m x 4m
Installation with mural, work on paper, paintings and object
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
In Search Of An Emily, 2005
280 x 380cm
acrylic, oil, ink and spray-paint on canvas
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
With Love from Batik Babe, exhibition view, 2005
20m x 15m x 4m
Installation with mural, work on paper, paintings and object
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
With Love from Batik Babe, exhibition view, 2005
20m x 15m x 4m
Installation with mural, work on paper, paintings and object
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
With Love from Batik Babe, exhibition view with shaped painting, 2005
20m x 15m x 4m
Installation with mural, work on paper, paintings and object
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
With Love from Batik Babe, Wall detail with drawing, 2005
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
De Javaan, 2005
75 x 80cm
acrylic, ink, pastel and spray-paint on paper
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
Chains, 2005
70 x 65cm
watercolour and spray-paint
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
Commitments, 2005
80 x 75cm
acrylic, ink, pencil, pastel and spray-paint on paper
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
Black Lagoon, 2004
180 x 190cm
ink, charcoal and spray-paint on paper
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
Sinamon Blue, 2003
180 x 190cm
acrylic, ink, graphite and collage on paper
photo credit: Zweerts fotografie
Description
A recurring subject of fascination in my work has been the representation of ‘the Orient’ in western (art)history, or, on a more profane level, the question what ‘the exotic’ could be.
‘The exotic’ is mainly a projection rather than a real place, and working around it has led me to related topics such as identity, tourism, the feminine, religion, nature, ornament and psychology. Building formally eclectic images and using installation as a presentation-form enables me to show the complexity of ‘the exotic’. As shown in the installation With Love from Batik Babe, initially the quest for ‘the exotic’ manifested in a deliberate use of ‘over-amplification’: saturated, tropical colors and stereotypical imagery – asian calendar girls, layered foliage, ornamental patterns – hinting at popular culture. It helped me to specify the theme in an unabashed way and pull it from a historical discourse into the present-day, mocking sentiment and melancholia.
With Love from Batik Babe focuses specifically on Indonesia and its colonial history with The Netherlands. The GEM being situated in The Hague, with the largest community of Dutch-Indonesians in The Netherlands, I wanted to create an overwhelming yet playful setting to recall this history.