Scarlett Hooft Graafland
Part time human
2000
"the town of Jerusalem is interesting for its historical meaning and the fact that three world religions have their holy places in the old city. this creates a specific atmosphere, which sometimes also can lead to madness.
in my work i react on this madness and on the commerce around the figure of Jesus.
in "parttime human" i am asking myself questions about "the real jesus", the same kind of questions the patients suffering from the "jerusalem syndrome" are dealing with.
i made a big production of soap; big flocks of sheep led by figures of Jesus.
i used the traditional soap from Nablus, a city in the westbank, made of pure olive oil without chemicals, a natural material which suits very well in the concept of the work.
"meat" are a few ideas about hybrid meat forms.
it is a reaction on the pieces of meat hanging in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Hebron and Cairo.
the last work, "42", the size of the shoes of king Abdallah, is a project inspired on king Abdallah of Jordan. there are stories about him that he sometimes sneaks out of his palace, dressed like an ordinary man to see what's going on among the common people.
therefore i designed shoes you can wear in two ways; a royal official shoe which, if you turn it around, becomes an ordinary shoe. this idea arose when I visited the Egyptian museum in Cairo, where the pure golden shoes of pharao Toutanchamon are shown.
finally, i managed to make an appointment with king Abdallah, with the help of his old rally-partner, who could also tell me the size of his shoes, because i wanted to ask the King if he could put the shoes on, to see if they would fit.
unfortunately, when I was waiting in his palace in Amman, the message came that he had no time to see me so i left the shoes with a letter for the king behind at the guard of the palace"
|
