“Especially for young Black women it is important to know their history, to know that their past is filled not only with oppression and suffering but also with resistance.”

Patricia Kaersenhout

 

Black women have often been repressed and forgotten in male-dominated historiography. The Surinamese-Dutch artist Patricia Kaersenhout has long been inspired by Black activism – indeed, she regards her art as a form of activism. The three textile banners from the Objects of Love and Desire series portray three heroines of the Pan-African movement: Una Marson, Eslanda Robeson and Amy Jacques-Garvey. All three are Black female thinkers, poets and activists who advocated for the perspective of Black women, defying conventions with their way of life. Though not many know of them today, their struggle against racism, sexism and inequality had a great impact on the Black movement in different parts of the world in the second half of the 20th century.

Kaersenhout’s works are influenced by the story of the White naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian: Merian’s research was to a large degree enabled by a female Black assistant from Surinam, who is never mentioned in her books and remains invisible. With Objects of Love and Desire, Kaersenhout addresses this hegemonic logic of historiography, urgently calling to remember the roles of Black women and People of Colour.

 

(from right to left)

Objects of Love and Desire: Amy Garvey, 2019

Digitally printed cotton, beads, various fabrics from the African continent.

Private collection, Netherlands

 

The publicist, feminist and activist Amy Jacques-Garvey (1895-1973) emigrated from Jamaica to the United States in 1917. In 1922, she married Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which campaigned for the emigration of all Black people to Africa. After his arrest, she took over the unofficial leadership of the UNIA, crucially contributing to Pan-Africanism with her speeches and writings. As co-editor of The Negro Worldmagazine, she was responsible for the page “Our Women and What They Think”.

 

Objects of Love and Desire: Una Marson, 2019

Digitally printed cotton, beads, various fabrics from the African continent.

Private collection, Netherlands

 

Una Marson (1905-1965) wrote poetry, plays and radio features. In 1932 she travelled from Jamaica to London to become the first Black woman to work for the BBC during the Second World War. In 1942, she began producing the Caribbean Voices programme, which provided the first prominent platform for young journalists from the Caribbean.

 

Objects of Love and Desire: Eslanda Robeson, 2019

Digitally printed cotton, beads, various fabrics from the African continent.

Private collection, Netherlands

 

Eslanda Robeson (1895-1965) was a US author, actor and civil rights activist who criticised colonialism, racism and traditional gender roles. Together with her husband, the actor and author Paul Robeson, she founded the Council on African Affairs in 1941.

 

Patricia Kaersenhout (born in 1966 in Den Header in the Netherlands, lives and works in Amsterdam) is a visual artist and activist whose parents come from Suriname. As she developed as an artist, she began to explore her Surinamese background in relation to her upbringing in a Western European culture. The political thread throughout her work raises questions about African diaspora movements and their relationship to feminism, sexuality, racism and the history of slavery. She considers her art a social practice and supports (young) men and women of colour along with undocumented refugee women with and in her projects.

→pkaersenhout

Patricia Kaersenhout
Objects of Love and Desire: Una Marson, 2019
Digital bedruckte Baumwolle, Perlen, verschiedene Stoffe vom afrikanischen Kontinent, Holzdübel
230 x 193 cm

 

Patricia Kaersenhout
Objects of Love and Desire: Amy Garvey, 2019
Digital bedruckte Baumwolle, Perlen, verschiedene Stoffe vom afrikanischen Kontinent, Holzdübel
190 x 136 cm

 

Patricia Kaersenhout
Objects of Love and Desire:  Eslanda Robeson, 2019
Digital bedruckte Baumwolle, Perlen, verschiedene Stoffe vom afrikanischen Kontinent, Holzdübel
233 x 186 cm