27/11/17
Interview with Pamela Schilderman
Casket
Maidstone Museum
17 October – 16 December 2017
Born
in Holland to a Dutch father and Brazilian mother, Pamela Schilderman (b1982)
spent her early years in Rwanda before moving to Rugby in the Midlands when she
was five. Questions of identity and language thus played a key role in her formative
years and it is unsurprising that they now permeate her artistic practice. Her
current project, Casket (2017), comprises a Victorian-style wrought iron and
glass jewellery box (bespoke, as, indeed, is everything in this work),
containing the artist’s thumbprint, DNA profile and hair follicles, a drawing
of a photograph of her retina, and a copper cast of her teeth. Each item has
been painstakingly handmade and carries with it symbolism on numerous levels.
Created as a self-portrait, the work has been shown anonymously in most of its
venues: Schilderman hopes this will raise questions about identity and
portraiture and what it is that defines each of them.
Read the interview here