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group exhibition/ residency
Gallery Pouleouf, Naarden, NL textile, soft and oil pastels, oils on canvas and paper 2019

“What does home mean to me?”

I asked myself that question during my residency in Naarden-Vesting, a small town in the middle of the Netherlands. Not far from big cities such Rotterdam and Amsterdam, but Naarden-Vesting felt astranged to me. As a person of colour I am used to live, walk, eat and sleep in spaces where people of colour from different cultures lived and worked in. I feel welcomed by these cities and felt the odd one out in this white dominant rich part of the town.

I imagined life in the hometown of my family in Bogor, Indonesia by watching Youtube movies of this vlogger of streetfood in villages near my parents hometown. The people I watched on a screen felt warm and known to me. More than the majority of the local residents. During my residency, I came across Julia, the adopted Indonesian owner of the toko/snackbar in the street and interviewed her. Together with Julia, I made a painting of the first female mayor of colour of Naarden, Joyce Sylvester and of our tour guide Henk who was married to a woman born and lived during the former West-Dutch Indisch time.

The exhibition showed a dining table with a cloth of batik patterns with notes about the meaning of home from immigrants and drawings of residents of Bogor.

Surrounding the table, you can find portraits of the former mayor of Naarden-Vesting Joyce Sylvester, the first surinamese woman appointed as a mayor, Henk (tourguide Naarden-Vesting) and Julia, owner of a toko/snackbar down the street.

Together with the exhibition, I cooked Indonesian food for local residents of Naarden-Vesting. By sharing food together, the exhibition is seen from another perspective. I find it important to explore various ways of creating relations between me and other, but also between other parties. Food is a way to talk about where you come from.

Cooked: Sayur Lodeh, tempe and sambal goreng telor