Eight masks, eight labels, eight stops in the audio walk I prepared for the XPUB graduation exhibition.

Identitours: A transmedia audio walk [external application]

The Journey
My journey starts from the definition: Words set perimeters,
but also bridge rivers, carve new paths. The map leads to wondrous
and sometimes fantastical transformations in the garden of
Buitenplaats Brienenoord: Masks — expressions of virtuality, of the
possible as a reality, built with everyday means. Audio pieces guide you
through a personal, evolving relationship with labels and exhibit the
ways in which I reject, reclaim or reinterpret words. Your walk between
points is a performative manifestation of my inner dialogue, the space
where meaning and identity are negotiated.


The Start (audio)
The start is a point in time and a point in space. Surrounded, preceded,
followed, extended, completed by other points. I have been called,
among others, “complicated”, “naive”, “strong”, “caring”, “smart”,
“stubborn”, “crazy” and “wild”. These saturated by context,
circumstance and intention words are my starting points in a journey
of performing and transforming meaning.


The Masks
Masks are used in my practice as a primary metaphor, a materialization
of the deeply personal answer to the question “What is the way out?”
of the boundaries labels set for identity. The whole process of
mask-making relates to the building and re-building of identity, to
the perpetual performative and relational process of looking at
what is available, picking and combining elements, (re-)imagining and
creating new forms of existing. Materials that are salvaged, recycled,
forgotten or not fitting anywhere else; carton, paper, scraps from
old textiles and broken toys, are used to express virtuality, an
endless potential for change and re-invention. In this sense, masks
are not used to conceal but to create space and potential.

The publication: Shifting Identities

A final take on biases: The third and last part of presenting Labels, but not for clothes focuses on "the way out" of the confines of labels. After discussing the impact of labels especially during the formative years in the first public moment, and systemic biasing in the second, this last exhibition focuses on affordances, performativity and virtuality.