Performer and visual artist Paul van de Waterlaat and curator Haiko Sleumer have been working together for several years, focusing on the repair and queering of both personal and collective history. Unfulfilled desires from their own youth and stereotyping surrounding queer identity form the starting point of their work.
In the exhibition Desire Has No History, persistent stereotypes surrounding queer identity are examined and used as material. It becomes evident how nineteenth-century classifications, which positioned homosexuality as a deviation or illness, continue to resonate in contemporary representations. What is at stake in the research of Paul & Haiko is not only representation, but the possibility of re-appropriation: reclaiming and transforming images that once functioned in a disciplinary way.
Through the creation of androgynous children’s clothing for Paul’s younger self and a quilt made from his mother’s dresses, Paul’s personal history is, on the one hand, repaired. At the same time, historical stigmas are amplified in collages of hybrid, imaginative queer monsters – figures that undermine the boundary between pathology and imagination.
Paul van de Waterlaat (1984, Helmond) works as a performer and artist, and pursued a master’s degree in Gender and Queer Studies. He is the co-founder of the performance collective Zwermers. Haiko Sleumer (1993, ’s-Hertogenbosch) is a designer and art historian. He works as a curator of contemporary art at Museum W in Weert. In their work, Paul and Haiko focus on the repair and queering of both personal and collective histories. They intertwine their artistic practice with their backgrounds in gender and art theory.
Bilderdijklaan 19
5611 NG Eindhoven
www.vanabbehuis.nl
Open
Thu–Sun 13:00–17:00
3 Nov, 16:00
Opening
30 Nov, 15:30–19:00
Open the Portal
1 Dec, 13:30 –16:00
Sewing Circle
The Feminist Handicraft Party
in collaboration with Studio Paul & Haiko
1 Dec, 16:00
Finissage
3 Nov, 16:00
Opening
30 Nov, 15:30–19:00
Open the Portal
1 Dec, 13:30 –16:00
Sewing Circle
The Feminist Handicraft Party
in collaboration with Studio Paul & Haiko
1 Dec, 16:00
Finissage
Performer and visual artist Paul van de Waterlaat and curator Haiko Sleumer have been working together for several years, focusing on the repair and queering of both personal and collective history. Unfulfilled desires from their own youth and stereotyping surrounding queer identity form the starting point of their work.
In the exhibition Desire Has No History, persistent stereotypes surrounding queer identity are examined and used as material. It becomes evident how nineteenth-century classifications, which positioned homosexuality as a deviation or illness, continue to resonate in contemporary representations. What is at stake in the research of Paul & Haiko is not only representation, but the possibility of re-appropriation: reclaiming and transforming images that once functioned in a disciplinary way.
Through the creation of androgynous children’s clothing for Paul’s younger self and a quilt made from his mother’s dresses, Paul’s personal history is, on the one hand, repaired. At the same time, historical stigmas are amplified in collages of hybrid, imaginative queer monsters – figures that undermine the boundary between pathology and imagination.
Paul van de Waterlaat (1984, Helmond) works as a performer and artist, and pursued a master’s degree in Gender and Queer Studies. He is the co-founder of the performance collective Zwermers. Haiko Sleumer (1993, ’s-Hertogenbosch) is a designer and art historian. He works as a curator of contemporary art at Museum W in Weert. In their work, Paul and Haiko focus on the repair and queering of both personal and collective histories. They intertwine their artistic practice with their backgrounds in gender and art theory.
Bilderdijklaan 19
5611 NG Eindhoven
www.vanabbehuis.nl
Open
Thu–Sun 13:00–17:00
