“I want attention and acknowledgement for the full range of human contact,” says Anouk Hoogendoorn (1995). The artist is critical of how certain types of communication are not considered to be of value. In order to make these more subtle layers of contact visible, Hoogendoorn makes installations on the interface between visual art, poetry, and philosophy.
At Prospects, Hoogendoorn is showing the installation A Lull Nearby (2023), the title of which alludes to both a lullaby and the world ‘lull’, a moment of rest or quiet. Lullabies are excellent examples of communication where subtle details play a significant role. As they are meant to accompany the transition to sleep, words are often of secondary importance, with the melody instead being hummed, for example.
A Lull Nearby consists of two parts. The first is a roll of texts in the tradition of lullabies that visitors can tear sheets from. It is attached to two found armrests that, in their own right, are examples of ‘hostile architecture’: furniture placed in the public space by the government to discourage certain types of behaviour. The other work is a textile piece featuring notes and sketches about various types of communication that the artist made over the course of a year. The installation reveals the limitations of mandatory forms of contact. These also allude to the stigmatization of people with a different approach to language. According to the artist, people are always expected to express themselves in certain fixed ways, “even though there are so many other possible ways of communicating.”
Text: Milo Vermeire
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang