Book to add: OPEN-ENDED VISIONS OF POSSIBILITIES. patricia kaersenhout

[Steffie]

open-ended-visions-of-possibilities-patricia-kaersenhout

ISBN 978-94-92852-91-5
Editing Chandra Frank, Eleonoor Jap Sam, patricia kaersenhout
Contributors Barby Asante, La Vaughn Belle, Ingrid Braam, Jeannette Ehlers, Chandra Frank, Sasha Huber, Roel Hijink, patricia kaersenhout, Rashid Novaire, rolando vázquez, Gloria Wekker, Selene Wendt
Translation Jimini Hignett
Transcript & proofreading Ronja Driessen, Eleonoor Jap Sam, Robert van de Walle
Graphic design Inedition (Eva van der Schans)
Number of pages 256
Book size 18.5 x 25 cm
Binding softcover, no binding, elastic bind
Paper Printed on leftover paperstock (fourteen different papers)
Language English | Dutch
Printer NPN Drukkers
Release date June 2023
Publisher Jap Sam Books i.c.w. Bonnefanten, with support of Mondriaan Fund, Jaap Harten Fonds

This book was published simultaneously with the solo exhibition Visions of Possibilities by patricia kaersenhout at Bonnefanten in Maastricht (June 10―November 5, 2023)

www.bonnefanten.nl

Promotional images by The Book Photographer.

AWARDED BEST DUTCH BOOK DESIGNS 2023

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| OPEN-ENDED VISIONS OF POSSIBILITIES holds thoughtful conversations, insightful contributions, and poetry exploring patricia kaersenhout's artistic practice and oeuvre over the years. Printed on leftover paperstock consisting of 14 different papers and fully loose-leafed, designed by Inedition (Eva van der Schans).

| Through her art, kaersenhout unveils profound ideas about connection, presence, and diasporic threads.

Open-Ended Visions of Possibilities speaks to the exploration and experimentation of possibility. What is made possible by artistic practice exploring archival erasure, historical silences, and Black feminist care practices? In dreaming up a multitude of visions and perspectives, kaersenhout allows us to journey with her artistic practice over the past decades.

This publication itself marks an important moment in her career by allowing the reader to oscillate between different geographies, works, and materials providing a rich and luscious sense of presence of kaersenhout's practice. Shaped by questions related to place, belonging, and the movement of African diasporas, kaersenhout goes beyond unveiling inequity and power structures, expanding our understanding of racial politics within a broader geopolitical framework. While kaersenhout's art could be read in response to forgotten histories, the cultural and political complexity of her work requires a close examination of how these histories are entangled with Dutch coloniality.

Through a visual practice, she unpacks how control, exploitation, domination, violence, and overall destruction continues to shape the ongoing legacies of colonialism and slavery. kaersenhout explores ideas of Dutch mastery alongside public memory and archival erasures. By requiring audiences to be active participants, she asks viewers to experience and feel through collective history and pain. Instead of solely making visible the violent histories and structures that permeate Dutch society, she asks us to reimagine and articulate the lives, experiences, and encounters of those that have long been excluded from mainstream archives.

With contributions by Barby Asante, La Vaughn Belle, Ingrid Braam, Jeannette Ehlers, Chandra Frank, Sasha Huber, Roel Hijink, Rashid Novaire, rolando vázquez, Gloria Wekker, and Selene Wendt.

"In many ways, we see her as someone who gathers – she gathers stories, narratives, textiles, and other materials. And, she also gathers us – as a community and an always – growing interwoven network of artists, thinkers, curators, activists, family, and more. kaersenhout gathers us in offering us spaces to dwell, making temporary shelter, and dreaming of possible futures." - Chandra Frank