Quinty van der Schaaf

"In ‘Some houses you carry,’ I explore what it means when a home slowly disappears. The work emerged from the sale of my childhood home: a place that embodies safety, love, tension, and memory all at once. Central to the work is the question of how a physical space becomes connected to my identity, family history, and feelings of loss.

The bond with my father plays an important role in this. The work reveals how love and pain can coexist. That tension between connection and distance is a recurring theme in my artistic practice. I also explore how the representation of Black women in art influences how I view myself, my surroundings, and my self-image.

The installation consists of Baroque-inspired frames in which personal images, materials, and memories come together. The choice of these frames evokes nostalgia and the desire to hold onto moments. Despite the colorful visual language, the work revolves around grief. Precisely because I tend to downplay my feelings, I explore how much space loss is allowed to occupy.

A thick ship’s rope extends from the frames into the space. The heavy rope not only represents the physical weight of the subject but also shows that the loss of home cannot be borne alone. By literally pulling the work into the space, loss becomes not only visible but also tangibly present.

Fabrics I brought back from Suriname connect the work to questions of origin, memory, and connection.

Some homes you still carry on your shoulders with you, even after you’ve left them.”

Contact: 
quintyvanderschaaf@hotmail.com