A recent image of the artist during the blessing ceremony of salt as part of the work The Soul of Salt at the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht (NL), 27 September 2020. photo: Manor Lux
Patricia Kaersenhout (b. 1966, lives and works in Amsterdam, NL) is a Dutch visual artist and activist of Surinamese heritage.
She has exhibited and performed widely, for example in 2020 at Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht (NL), Kunstverein Braunschweig (DE), Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (DE); in 2019 at De Appel, Amsterdam (NL) and The National Art Gallery of the Bahama’s; in 2017-2018 Prospect 4, New Orleans (US) and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL); 2014 Biennale of Dakar (SN). In 2018 she was part of Manifesta 12 in Palermo.
Patricia Kaersenhout
Food for Thought, 2018
Installation view
For Paris Internationale we will show a series of monumental textile works, Food for Thought, 2018.
Women of Caribbean descent, but influential world-wide in the second half of the 20th century, all part of Pan-Africanist and transnational feminist movements, are shown as heroic figures, based on Sovjet propaganda posters. Each banner is framed with printed cottons that the artist has collected from the African continent. Intricate bead-work highlights their features.
Furthermore we will show online some older works from 2011 with similar subject matter.
All works are rendered in Kaersenhout’s distinctive mode of digitally and traditionally printed fabrics, both hand- and machine-embroidered, with highlights of fine bead-work and appliqué.
Patricia Kaersenhout
Mea Culpa, 2020-2021
An installation of 27 sculptures (one shown)
3-D printed resin, 13,0 x 22,4 x 10,0 cm each (in progress)
In 2021 she wil be part of the international travelling exhibition Diversity United – Contemporary European Art at Tempelhof Berlin (DE), New Tretyakov Gallery Moscow (RU) and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (FR).
Kaersenhout’s proposal is based on the legacies of wealth associated with slavery in the regions historically controlled by European powers. Its title, Mea Culpa, refers to the traditional Christian practice of atoning for sins through enduring physical hardship during ritual pilgrimages. Kaersenhout brings this practice into the present day by suggesting the acceptance of guilt by figures representing today’s powerful elites.
Patricia Kaersenhout in front of her seminal work 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Too' at De Appel, Amsterdam, winter 2019. photo: Aatjan Renders
Patricia Kaersenhout works across a wide range of media, and often collaborates with others.
The reception of her work coincides with a political wave of emancipation among younger activists and artists of colour worldwide, and where the response is more and more one of recognition. She is a forerunner in The Netherlands and one of the main protagonists of this movement.