Baggage

White one: Length variabel x60x20cm
Plastern, mixed material, backpack, straps, wood, rope

Red one: 75x50x40 cm
Backpack, blanket

2017

Bcademie Group exhibition in TENT Rotterdam

'Baggage’ is made of two stereotypical tracking backpacks with an aluminium frame, one is standing on the floor and one is hanging from the ceiling, corresponding to the average shoulder height of the viewer creating a physical connection that makes it easy to imagine wearing it.

The red one on the floor is filled with a woolen blanket, visible through the cut-out pattern that suggests the windows of an apartment building. The hanging backpack consists of the same pattern, but cut out of multiple layers of different materials with a plaster layer on top. The layers in between are made of all kinds of commonly used building and isolation materials, along with blankets and other interior textiles. All the intermediate layers are visible through the cut-outs, through which they are tied to the aluminium frame with a strap.

Baggage can refer to both the material belongings that people carry with them, as well as the metaphorical baggage of emotional burden. The work is based on the images of refugees and the ambiguity of the baggage they carry with them; the heavy luggage which is all they have left, together with the emotional distress created by displacement.

The recognizable patterns of an apartment building, and the layers of both building materials and textiles together symbolize the homes that are torn apart showing the inside, as well as the luggage as a carried-over remnant of what a home was. Carrying their homes, quite literally, on their backs.