Klik hier voor Nederlands
For her project The Untangled Tales (2020–ongoing), Michelle Piergoelam (1997) visually represents previously untold stories from the history of slavery in Surinam. These stories of hope and resilience do not zoom in on suffering, but instead highlight an entirely different aspect. They reveal how enslaved people used a coded language to, which enabled them to hang on to a certain degree of power. Passed on from generation to generation, this knowledge had travelled with the enslaved people from Africa to Surinam and could help them offer resistance, and sometimes even escape.
Fourteen Leaves and a Cup of Water (2024) – a title evoking a mysterious recipe – is the third chapter of The Untangled Tales and focuses on enslaved people’s extensive knowledge of plants. This botanic expertise occasionally enabled them to poison their oppressor, to escape from the cruel circumstances on the plantation, and to survive in the dense Surinamese rainforest. Piergoelam’s elongated prints depict the impenetrable rainforest that the artist herself visited for the very first time last year, as part of her research. Born and raised in the Netherlands, Piergoelam has a Surinamese-Hindustani background, but knew little to nothing about Surinamese culture. ‘I regard my projects as ways to explore and study the history of my own culture, and to showcase stories I had never heard of before. My projects enable others to marvel at a wide range of cultures, traditions, and belief systems without understanding the language.’
Text: Esther Darley
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)