Poetry is dirty and so are we — Slippery contacts from allocated lockers

Installation of old, heavy belongings, locker-room hooks and restaurant waiting buzzers in pockets (Research for Practice), 2026

This work was installed as part of a collaborative exhibition entitled ‘Uncut’, organised by the Rietveld Academy and the Stedjik Museum. Participants were given the common theme of ‘Love-making’, and I proposed this concept as a series of poetic encounters in which meaning is constantly rediscovered. Furthermore, whilst researching how these attempts are reappropriated by the system, I interpreted the conventions within the art gallery—such as the ownership of artworks and the ritual of leaving one’s heavy burdens behind in the cloakroom—through the lens of ‘the politics of purity’.

The exhibition ran for about a week, and during that time something unexpected happened. Visitors actually hung their own clothes on the hooks installed in the exhibition space. Why did visitors hang their clothes inside the gallery rather than leaving them in the cloakroom? Was it because of the few items of clothing I had hung up there beforehand? Or was it simply because they had worked up a sweat climbing the stairs from the basement lockers to the exhibition space? Or perhaps it was because, thanks to the security guards who were always on duty, the exhibition space seemed like a relatively ‘safe place’ to store their belongings?