Meanwhile … What you don’t see is what you won’t get

Born in Den Helder, but a descendant from Surinamese parents, Patricia Kaersenhout developed an artistic journey in which she investigates her Surinamese background in relation to her upbringing in West European culture. The political thread in Patricia Kaersenhouts work raises questions About the African Diaspora’s movements and its relation to feminism, sexuality, racism and the history of slavery. As an artist, I’m in a constant state of becoming, she writes.

For this exhibition with the title: What you don’t see is what you won’t get, Patricia Kaersenhout delivers a new series of her most recent work, that represents a new transition phase in the her career as an artist. In this new work, loaded with a noir drama, Patricia Kaersenhout emphasizes sexual attitudes and historical neglect by black and white oppressors. Inspired by Bell Hooks’ book, Ain’t I a woman, she investigates the historical (non)position of black females. Since black women are mostly ignored in white written history she plays with the fact that being invisible gives one the freedom to question a so called truth and juice it up with fiction. This is directly related to her own oral history tradition where there is never a clear line between facts and fiction. With the title of the show the artists challenges the viewer to look with close attention in order not to miss anything. While watching the viewer looks at the subject that has been historically ignored and invisible, the black female. To understand the work the viewer has to watch with attention otherwise the essence won’t reveal itself.

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Patricia Kaersenhout has studied social studies at the Amstelhorn Amsterdam and Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and the CBK Zuidoost (Centre for Visual Arts) commissioned Kaersenhout in 2003 to develop a work of art in connection with 140 years abolition in the Netherlands and
Suriname. She has participated in exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad and her work has been published in several publications. In 2008 she participated in Wakaman – Drawing lines, connecting dots, which resulted in a group exhibition in Suriname and a book. Recently, Kaersenhout was invited by TENT. in Rotterdam to organize a debate together with artist Charl Landvreugd titled Am I Black Enough for you in connection with the exhibition Paramaribo Perspectives. In 2010 her work was part of Wrestling with the image: Caribbean Interventions, curated by Christopher Cozier and Tatiana Flores, Art museum of the Americas, Washington D.C.. In 2011, the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts commissioned Patricia Kaersenhout for a research and a photo project in Suriname.