First Lessons in Relativity
by Sonja van Kerkhoff, 1992
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These dolls are copies of a toy someone gave me for my baby. It was a pink and
a blue doll joined at the head by string. I had never thought so many
people around me would took these 'lessons' about the separateness of
sex so deadly seriously until I had a child with an indeterminate name
and whose sex I was not willing to reveal. |
So I hung these dolls high up to simulate the baby's view, mixing up the colours and the forms to present sexuality as a continuum. |  < Larger view (38 kb), in the Oceania exhibition, June 2004. |
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 View of the Oceania exhibition, June 2004, Urmond, The Netherlands. |
| Statement for the Far Neighbours exhibtion Calling another a neighbour, whether far or close, is about the relationships we have with each other. A lot of my work relates to human relationships, such as First Lessons in Relativity where dolls in various shades ranging from pink to blue hang above the viewer. The dolls are about our first lessons in socialisation. The first time we relate to a neighbour, perhaps? |
 In the Far Near Neighbours exhibition, February 2005, New Temple Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. |
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These dolls hover above, out of reach, but definitely for viewing, much like toys are hung above a new-born's bassinet. The dolls are identical in form, to show our commonality, and the changes are subtle. Identity like gender does not have rigid borders.
Tulips from Istanbul is another hanging installation, this time of translucent tulip forms in various shades of orange. They are accompanied by a text from the Quran: "It is not a tale invented but a confirmation of what went on before it..." and by a historical statement: "The Dutch House of Orange has reigned since 1572. The tulip from Turkey gained popularity in West Europe in the early 1600s." The Tulip, now a Dutch cultural symbol, migrated to the 'west' from an Islamic culture. Orange, now the colour associated with being Dutch, originated in France and reached us via various German Dukedoms. I hung these tulips so that we look up at them (from another perspective). They are in constant, often barely perceptible, motion. This cultural symbol is a by-product of exchange and migration, and is not something 'set in concrete'. As the quotation from the Quran states: It is not newly made but another appearance of what already is. The work An Inland soul at sea, consists of suspended forms that seems like suspended islands or boats of light. |
 In the Far Near Neighbours exhibition, February 2005, New Temple Gallery, Saravego, Bosnia-Herzegovina. |
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The sound that accompanies this incorporates music by Brenda Liddiard & Mark Laurant (New Zealand) and Ben Koen & Joe Fiedler (U.S.A.). The music, like the suspended forms, seems to fluctuate between abstraction and the descriptive. There are sounds that seem sea-like and phrases that are dominated by rhythm. The title comes from a phrase in a poem by the American Emily Dickinson, in which she spoke of feeling lost or out of place. I took this idea of the 'different entrapped in something else' and made a fleet. Here these are 'souls' of the far and near. |
| Shown:
2005 Far Near Neighbours, Sarajevo Winter Festival, Bosnia-Herzegovina. 2004 Oceania,Terpkerk, Urmond, The Netherlands. 1993 Arti, Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands. 1992 Graduation Exhibition, Maastricht School of Visual Arts, Maastricht, The Netherlands. |
the medium |  | c.v. last things first |