Hilde Onis, ArtEZ
What feeling does a sex-worker get when she walks through her area in daylight? What is she thinking when she looks at the flickering neon-signs and the abandoned mattresses on the street, do they remind her of all the beds she ever shared with men she was afraid of?
The definition of an object: ‘Something you perceive, edit, love, hate’, or ‘something you can touch that isn’t alive’. I connect stories to the objects that surround me and I link certain objects to the stories I come across. A bed is not only a bed: It’s a place where you spend a big part of your life, which absorbs your bodily fluids, where you reach out for another body while your eyes are crusty with sleep and your mind’s still dreamy. Without objects, we can not exist anymore. We spend more time surrounding ourselves with lifeless things without lungs to breath, hearts to love and warmth to give, than with human beings. When we leave our houses, we often carry a bag full of things with us because they make us feel secure, prepared for any situation, and yet; things are still just ‘things’. By using familiar things to depict a certain atmosphere and by altering objects in a way they are still recognizable but can no longer be used, I hope, through looking at my work, others will ask themselves similar questions.
Sweater