Bedstee

2025, miniature-installation 

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A miniature wardrobe with a doll-sized interior, resembling Polish "meblościanki" from the 1960s and 1970s. Inside, a video titled "Bedstee - We Sleep in Wardrobes" features the artist discussing Dutch heritage. The video was filmed inside a reupholstered Polish meblościanka to fit the artist's body.

The work reflects on the artist's bi-cultural identity and search for home, incorporating elements like postmodern Polish design and the folkloric "Hindelope" chair. It explores growing up between two cultures and the evolving layers of identity, symbolized by the chair’s connection to migration. The diorama invites reflection on personal and cultural discovery.

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2020, video [01:50]

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In the polder, how do we sleep? The attic is taken up by hay, the cellar is undeep because of the clay. We sleep in closets. These closets are called bedstee, the place of the bed. They are build-in wall closets with wooden doors. Inside you find a bed and a shelf (occasionally housing the baby’s crib), not much more than that. People in Holland used to sleep in a bedstee from the 16th century on. They were still popular on the countryside in the 20th century. A lot of farms still have the closets in place. My mom converted them to a wardrobe. I used to hide behind the long dresses on the floor, where nobody could find me.