A child, dressed from head to foot in a knitted wool suit, like a skin, crawles in an indefinable space. On hands and feet it shuffles along the walls and curls up in a corner, only to continue a little later. The faceless are examining their surroundings slowly and cautiously, also in the other video works made in the last years by Joanneke Meester.
Doll-like, animal or like a young child, sometimes artificial-like, or with a damaged character in a way, they proceed, somewhere. There appears to be no action or goal. They are groping explorations of deserted places, looking without direction, for traces, openings, possibilities. Returning to the simplified state of being, in which the body is looking for a relation to it's surrounding. This causes movements and questions of this body, in a language that has worn out gradually. We see undefineable, fetus-like creatures that breathe in transparant sacs of spirits. Somebody noticed that they remind him of his daugthers 'sucked' dolls, but soon he was face to face with the skin: the nipples that shape the eyes and the stiched-up mouth creates a undeniable distance.
The habitat of spirits in plastic sacs appear to refer to the laboratory, science, making of the human and the 'fetus product', though there are also many signs of hard life, referring to nothing but a clinical environment. Their poses recall a craving for security and innocence. They are isolated of their surroundings, but show themselves naked. We see traces of life, of things that might have happened. They appear to be unborn, and at the same time fully grown, everything has passed. They might have been exposed to caressing and violence.
Joanneke Meester house for kloone4000: her 'lecture' is a performance (not physically present). Statements are directed into the outside world from within her safe spot. She is imaginary living in this small house.
website: www.joannekemeester.nl
website Artspace Witzenhausen: www.art-space.nl
courtesy Artspace Witzenhausen
courtesy Artspace Witzenhausen