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'Traces of My Roommate' is a work that emerged from my ongoing research 'Mutual Darkness of Objects'.  The work contains 28 ceramic sculptures of the bathroom mat in combination with a poem that was recited at the time.

Ik erger mij aan de badkamermat en hij zich waarschijnlijk ook aan mij. Hij absorbeert en resoneert met de chaotische energie van mijn huisgenoot en wanneer zij de ruimte verlaat en ik deze betreed word ik dominant begroet door haar opmerkelijk aanwezige vitaliteit.

Maar daar heb ik helemaal geen zin in. Ik heb geen zin om geconfronteerd te worden met haar sterke onbewogen ongrijpbare levenslust wat zich vestigt in de kronkels van het schijnbaar levenloos stuk stof.

En terwijl ik met mijn blote tenen de vlekkerige mat glad strijk en daarmee haar onbezonnen jeugdigheid corrigeer, hoop ik dat de kriebels op de grond zich in mijn onderbuik gaan nestelen en ik ook weer wat van die verloren vitaliteit ervaar.

Condition:
I document the position and/or shape of the bath mat when it causes me frustration.

Over a 11 week period, I documented the position and shape of the bath mat in my shared household when it frustrated me. The 28 mat versions that resulted from this were then meticulously recreated to scale and preserved in ceramics. These objects contain the unwittingly youthful and vital movements of my roommate, an energy which I wish to preserve since it is in heavy contrast with that of mine.

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‘Mutual Darkness of Objects’ is a research documentation, inspired by Object-Oriented Ontology, about discovering and developing a narrative from a non-human starting point. The title refers to the idea that objects never make direct contact with each other, any more than with the human mind, but require a mediator for such contact to occur. This "mutual darkness" or "mutual withdrawal of things, a term used by Heidegger, makes reality only accessible with indirect language, such as metaphors in aesthetics and poetry.

Method

object (as tracer) ︎︎︎ traces (they capture) ︎︎︎ metaphor ︎︎︎ communicative value

Within this research the (non-human) object is used as a ‘tracer’ to trace the worlds it passes through. By observing and analyzing the object in the different networks of actions in which it is engaged, I’m hoping to extract a communicative value out of the various gestures of the object. This hopefully leads to an exploratory dialog between me, the other and the things around me.