The Silence of the Siren. Solo exhibition Crime Scenes 2007

In 2005, I moved in to live with my boyfriend in a studio apartment in Rotterdam West. It had a beautiful old bay window with a view of the park and the city centre. In spring, when the trees turned green, it seemed like we were living in an aquarium, or in the Garden of Eden. Though the décor was lovely, our relationship was sometimes shadowed by dark feelings such as shame, guilt, and fear of abandonment. We each had a past – failed relationships or, as in my case, the loss of a former boyfriend in a diving accident. The ordinary domestic surroundings turned, in my imagination, into crime scenes: shirts hung up to dry could also look like a ‘peeled man skin’.

I was also inspired by the well-known Andersen fairy tale The Little Mermaid, and by the Greek myth about the Sirens. These stories helped me to distance myself somewhat from my personal experience, and provided room for some irony and self-mockery.

The Silence of the Siren, detail from installation: ceramic sculpture 60 cm high. Watch Video