Title: Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen
Year: 1994
Length: 13:26
Format: SVHS (undigitised)
Credits: Music: Michel Verheecke (Belgium)
Voice: Sonja van Kerkhoff
Actors: 6 children.
A quasi-self-portrait of an artist and mother of young children where I use my own art objects as as backdrops or elements to complement the narrative. The children’s actions extend the narrative. Two voices: a pessimist and optimist ‘converse’ as images of eggs played with, being forced into transparent egg-cups, being eaten and being broken merge between images of my art objects being played with by the children. The “Wrapping”, a long cloth bearing images of a baby with text directed at the viewer, occurs and reoccurs throughout the video, reminding us of the dichotomy of the spectatorship of art
Sonja van Kerkhoff is a New Zealand artist based in the Netherlands and Aotearoa. She uses diverse materials and media to produce lyrical work often with a conceptual edge.”My works are narratives as aesthetic experiences in sound or vision, whether in static, interactive or time-based media.”