Alledaagse ergernissen en het Baby zeepaardje
Bianca Sistermans and K. Schippers
photographs and a portfolio
Een mogelijk begin van veel
Bianca Sistermans
photographs
Unhinged, frayed and defiled: Bianca Sistermans new photographs of unruly objects trigger conflicting emotions. At first glance, they are deeply funny in an anarchical manner. Things in resistance, refusing to do their assigned jobs properly. But underneath the comical, there is an almost tender quality to the way the artist portrays these rejects of consumer society. Behind every failure, there is a deeply personal story: a Christmas ornament clumsily dropped, a botched tile job, the careless handling of an electrical iron. Sistermans images do not merely document the pitfalls of everyday life, but rather transform them into powerful metaphors of the human condition, the fragility and transience of all materiality. Within a culture that is quick to replace everything deemed outdated, impractical or simply ugly, there is a sense of dignity in the stubborn perseverance of futility.
In a second series of photographs shown here, Sistermans portrays nine poets in their living and working environments, focusing on the elusive and immaterial labour of writing poetry and the everyday surroundings inspiring each individual. The work will be published, among others, in the book 'Een mogelijk begin van veel' (with texts by Hester van Hasselt).
With one of her subjects, dutch poet K. Schippers, Sistermans created a special portfolio: an edition of ten hand-written versions of his poem 'het Baby zeepaardje' from 2020, which accompany some of her images from the 'Everyday Annoyances' series. Sadly, only three copies where finished before his passing in August of this year. Instead, his original writings will be made available as photocopies, as testament to friendship and mutual admiration between Schippers and Sistermans.
Diana Weis