Dream Dig

There once was a time I had time. I thought out what I still can do in this world, like travelling, cooking exotic meals and doing artwork or handicraft. Then I got a job, where I had to communicate about how magnificent people are when they are young or at least male. I tried to oppose but was overwhelmed by the unity of my colleagues. I retreated into a world where not even I was aware anymore of what is important to me.
Now I have lost the mentioned job, et voilà, my dreams are back; not just like that, but I have found online possibilities of sharing, where people think differently from the ones around me. Maybe they are just not so aware of my gender or age, because online these details blur. People here are occupied with my artwork and blog posts rather than with thinking about my biological reality.

This process of having lost my dreams for my future and finding them again I have displayed in form of a collection of spices and handicraft materials. These materials symbolize some of the activities I am rather dreaming about than doing them: cooking, travelling, doing things with my hands. Still, I do not give up having time and money for them one day. I also would like to have a piano or jumping from a diving board, but this is more difficult to create a collection from.

I folded boxes from origami paper. Then I stuck the materials on little cardboard squares, together with a mixture from sand and charcoal . It was exciting and mysterious when I had to use a brush to clean the spices or beads from charcoal dust and sand. I put the so prepared squares into the boxes and used scotch tape to partly close the box to protect the content from being touched. This symbolizes shielding, but also isolation. I stuck the little boxes into a bigger box and gave written descriptions underneath or above, like it is done in a collection of a museum.

For this artwork I was deeply inspired by the videos about Joseph Cornell, Andy Warhol and Mark Dion, which are provided by an online art course.
Joseph Cornell created little worlds, which often appear isolated from the world around, Andy Warhol stored his past in boxes and Mark Dion pretends to be an archaeologist while creating his artwork. This is what I took out of the videos and what influenced my work.