onzichtbare productie van zorg

Videostill Groningen 2015

Als kunstenaar ben ik gewend dat mijn werk bestaat uit een (re)productie van vormen en objecten. Nu mijn onderzoek zich richt op de werkomgeving van de wijkverpleegkundige, wil ik deze productie kritischer bekijken. Wat ik zie in de huizen waar de vrouwen werken is dat hun werk niet zozeer vormen en objecten voortbrengt, maar eerder een autonomie van leven.

Doordat het werk zich afspeelt in de beslotenheid van huizen van cliënten, blijft het bijzonder noodzakelijke en creatieve werk van de vrouwen veelal onzichtbaar voor de buitenwereld. Ik zie hier daarom een opdracht voor mij als buitenstaander een manier te vinden om iets te (re)produceren waarin die autonomie spreekt.

tomatoes and cucumbers never die

This thursday I was welcome to join nurse Ella visit Mrs Z, shortly after she lost her husband. I met them in november last year, to talk about Ella for the Role Model Project. 

The interior of the living room changed due to the absence of the bed in the living room where Mr Z spent his last weeks. 

I went to make coffee in the kitchen and found a note from the husband to his wife on a whiteboard hanging next to the door: Ik hou nog veel van jou, 8-05-2015, niet huilen. Underneath grocery items were written that needed to be bought: tomaten, komkommer. 

The message filled the whole house and went straight for my heart. 

Mrs Z will help me to make a portrait of Ella, who was there four times a day for her husband.  

Working class hands

In almost every art show I went lately I saw imagery of working hands: At the 2015 Venice Biënnale, this years Rijksakademie open weekend and at the current show at SMBA of Antony Pittas.

My concern is not only that my own fascination for hands at work is not so original anymore, but the fact that all the hands I see seem to be working class hands, estheticized for an artist's concept.

I am worried that there is a distance growing between the hands on the screens, the ones that made the video and the people that are buying them, which I presume are not covered in callus.

video fragment Antonnis Pittas

notes

Telephone notes, documentation Role Model project 2015.

I read about some artist a couple of years ago that did a residency in the office world. Let me look up his name….Shit, can't find it. Anyway, what I remember is that he collected post-its around the offices and researched in what way drawing is important in a world without art: the office discourse.
Saskia Janssen also collected other peoples drawing outside her own discourse, in her project with homeless people in Amsterdam in 2006-2008. In shelter Blaka Watra, she discovered that people there were drawing all the time. On notes, on the table surface, on the walls. She also invited the people at the shelter to collect all the so called careless drawings. She published them in an interesting publication: Blaka Watra Spiders, Saskia Janssen, Roma Publications 2009.

Blaka watra centre, picture by Janssen in her book.

My first three meetings with the nurses have past, and I can say there a few points that had my attention. Hands and language through hand gestures; the soft but firm touch of the woman hand with her clients. I have asked one nurse to collect all her telephone notes and doodles. But I also have a set up in mind where I document her on video when she is on the phone for an hour or so.

Nurses and art

Nurses have always impressed me. My parents both started out as nurses, that's how they met. Before I went to art school I highly doubted if an artist is really necessary in this world, compared to a job in care. My generation, from where I come from, is brought up with the idea that one should follow a passion to build one's career - I was one of many thousands arts students graduating in 2009.

In my current practice there is still the question of necessity present. Part of this discussion inspired me to start a project in 2010 for a company in home care, Buurtzorg. I made 5 large interior portraits of their clients. (watch them here) It gave me the opportunity to enter a world that I knew about from my parents and their stories. It learned me that being an artist can be great, also outside of the conventional art world. 

I had set up a construction so that all three parties benefitted from the pieces: The company had large drawings that gave insight to their work field; The clients received a smaller drawing of a favorite object in their house and could hang it in their home; And I had an entrance into hyper private spaces, gaining knowledge on the relationship between artist and model, finding my own role outside the art world as I knew it, and for the first time becoming completely emotionally involved in my work. 

This month I start a new series, commissioned by the almost 10 year old foundation Buurtzorg: Role model. Together with their clients and direct colleagues, I will make portraits of a selection of nurses in the Netherlands. We will make a collection of drawings, photographs, video's and small sculptures around the individual nurse.

During my days with the nurses I will explore my own position as an artist within this private home context. 

Miss Kessel, Damrak Amsterdam 2010. ( She was 103 back then!)