Could you tell us why you chose to respond to collection 1.0122 and how you started to navigate the early stages of your research?
Being the curator of Saudade meant that I was in the privileged position to go through almost the entire EAC collection. It was a fascinating few days, and I realised how unusual the archive was: a collection of items and documents that, standing alone, might seem inconsequential or trivial. Yet together, in their entirety, the collections create a rich tapestry weaving hundreds of lives and cultures together, bound by both the poignancy of everyday life and the occasional adventure that comes along. Furthermore, in amongst the shopping lists and school reports are items of historical significance – otherworldly objects that have not quite found a home in the typical museum archive.
Personally, I was looking for a collection in which an object was included. I wanted to have that physical interaction with the archive: to be able to ‘hold’ the past, rather than just read about it. Collection 1.0122 is not a large collection yet it had an object, a wooden puzzle, which instantly caught my imagination. Not least because a piece from the puzzle was missing. For me, this was the ultimate invitation to engage with that particular piece.
Have you worked with archival material before and, if so, could you comment on the importance of responding to historical records within your practice?
Archival material plays a significant role in my practice. I consider visiting museums, local archives and heritage centres essential when beginning a new project. In terms of responding directly to archival material, I worked on a similar project, Archivo Ahora, in rural Spain in 2011. I selected one image, randomly, from the local municipal archives every day for four weeks. Each day I re-enacted this archival image in the present day. Local people began to help me, and the project became a mapping strategy to understand the geography and history of the area. Responding to historical records helps us, as artists, navigate the present: to connect with a wider public and become informed in our approach to materials, text and voice.
You decided to create the missing puzzle piece from the jigsaw in the collection. Could you comment on this from a conceptual point of view?
Yes, soon after choosing the collection I decided to create the missing puzzle piece. However, the materials and design of the piece came later. It was very clear to me from the beginning that the piece should join the puzzle in the archive, as a visual clue to the history of the donor. Documentation of the puzzle, incomplete and ‘complete’, would be in the suitcase but the piece itself would be packed away with the rest of the puzzle in the EAC, only accessible to those who asked to see the collection. I am interested in works that are not easily identifiable as ‘art’ but act as quiet, yet disruptive, signifiers.
In terms of the making of the object, you collaborated with goldsmith Aletta Teunen. Have you worked collaboratively before?
For me, collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach is key to a successful piece of work. The research that I conducted into Palau Kemaro Island near Palembang, where the donor grew up, revealed a conflicting identity as a place of romantic folklore and scarring industrialisation. Gold features in almost every forkloric tale connected to the island; however, the area is primarily known for its rubber and oil exports. I wanted to bring these elements together and collaborating with Aletta allowed me to do this.
The research that you have undertaken for this project has led to, potentially, creating more responses to other puzzles from the same era. Could you expand on this?
It transpired that the puzzle is part of a larger collection of puzzles and decorative menus given to passengers aboard Rotterdamsche Lloyd ships during the 1940s and 1950s. I was lucky enough to have a meeting with the director of the Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd Museum where we discussed the relationship between the shipping company and Sumatra, both historically but also in the present day. Aletta and I will now collaborate on another piece that investigates joint heritage and this will join a new collection of objects and images in Medan, Sumatra in 2018.
Are there any strategies or themes developed during the Saudade project that you are keen to take forward into future works?
Certainly, the research into the history of the Dutch East Indies is complex and fascinating and I will continue to research this alongside the themes of landscape identity.
Furthermore, from a curatorial standpoint, I feel tremendously excited and motivated to see Saudade take shape. It is my intention to curate similar projects with a variety of heritage partners in the future – continuing to shine the light into the darkest corners of archives internationally and fostering new collaborative ways of re-imagining history.
Working with the selected artists on this project has been illuminating. Their hard work and imaginative approach has allowed for rigorous debate, historic scrutiny, personal memory and beauty to sit perfectly alongside each other. The EAC and I wish the artists all the best in their future endeavours.