Make-believe | 2021
“When the child was a child, […]
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea. […]
When the child was a child, […]
it had, on every mountaintop,
the longing for a higher mountain yet,
and in every city,
the longing for an even greater city,
and that is still so”
(Peter Handke, Song of Childhood)
Make-believe reveals an inquiry into themes of nostalgia and its connection to childhood.
The title suggests the make-believe practice, known also as children’s pretend play, in which every ephemeral part of reality could call up something else and arouse actions, images and desires ad infinitum.
As Peter Handke’s poem evokes, nostalgia could be generated by something present that recall something absent or not encountered yet, for adults as well as for children. At the same time, nostalgia could be also a driving force of imagination and consequent actions.
The installation gathers images for their quality of being gates to an everyday uncanny. Through different perspectives and hues, these images evokes absence, presence and the possibility that reality might be a scenario of the unexpected and a starting point for imagination.