Outsider
Site specific project during my residency at BÆST Bornholm.
While wandering the streets of the different towns around the island, I noticed the carefully curated windowsills allowing for a glimpse into the homes and the lives of the locals. As a foreigner, I felt like I was walking the corridors of a big, open-air exhibition, made for passersby to enjoy and appreciate.
Windowsill design “trends” began to emerge: Danish wooden animals and Bornholmer ceramics, religious and neo-classical figurines, ships etc.
Certain objects faced the street and others, the home. Some told a more personal story than others, but mostly-all were composed with careful consideration.
Questions about identity arose. National pride, privacy, security and peoples’ relationship to their belongings - they all met on the windowsill for a lively dialogue within themselves, and with those looking in from the street.
The line between personal and public space was blurred by the communicative presentations.
Personally, a huge questionmark around my sense of belonging appeared and I was unable to ignore it any longer. My research led to archetypes of women sitting by windowsills looking out, trapped and gazing upon their unlived lives.
This experience provoked a personal quest towards living my life the way I saw fit, not letting an old dream remain unfulfilled any longer. But for this first step in the journey, I was already in a different position than most of those women from the paintings: I was on the outside looking in.
What will you choose to place upon your windowsill? Which “message” would you like to convey? Is it even a message, or merely a collection of some of your favorite stuff?
While wandering the streets of the different towns around the island, I noticed the carefully curated windowsills allowing for a glimpse into the homes and the lives of the locals. As a foreigner, I felt like I was walking the corridors of a big, open-air exhibition, made for passersby to enjoy and appreciate.
Windowsill design “trends” began to emerge: Danish wooden animals and Bornholmer ceramics, religious and neo-classical figurines, ships etc.
Certain objects faced the street and others, the home. Some told a more personal story than others, but mostly-all were composed with careful consideration.
Questions about identity arose. National pride, privacy, security and peoples’ relationship to their belongings - they all met on the windowsill for a lively dialogue within themselves, and with those looking in from the street.
The line between personal and public space was blurred by the communicative presentations.
Personally, a huge questionmark around my sense of belonging appeared and I was unable to ignore it any longer. My research led to archetypes of women sitting by windowsills looking out, trapped and gazing upon their unlived lives.
This experience provoked a personal quest towards living my life the way I saw fit, not letting an old dream remain unfulfilled any longer. But for this first step in the journey, I was already in a different position than most of those women from the paintings: I was on the outside looking in.
What will you choose to place upon your windowsill? Which “message” would you like to convey? Is it even a message, or merely a collection of some of your favorite stuff?
Below are some windows in Tel-Aviv, photographed after coming back from the residency.
During the residency period I held a workshop at the BÆST gallery, where the local community was invited to hear about the project, have me ask them questions about their windows and views about this custom.
In addition, the visitors were asked to bring a personal, decorative object with a story behind it, which they shared with the group and also pondered whether it’s a display-kind-of-object, or not.
In addition, the visitors were asked to bring a personal, decorative object with a story behind it, which they shared with the group and also pondered whether it’s a display-kind-of-object, or not.
