Being With / 与你同在
Over eight months I returned again and again to two women, Nadine and Anna-Marie. I photographed them and read their pulses. Photography took me into their daily lives; pulse reading took me beneath the skin, into what a lifetime settles into a body. The collage installations bring together materials they gave me with descriptions of what I felt in their pulses. During the exhibition at Clublokaal, I offered visitors a one-on-one pulse reading and a portrait, printed and placed on the wall as the show grew.
From these two individuals, the work opens outward. Les gens se rencontrent toujours (People Always Meet) is a portrait series of the ordinary people who sustain this place: farmers, market vendors, a nurse, a winemaker, apple pickers, volunteers at local festivals. In French one says that only mountains never meet; in Chinese, even mountains and rivers find each other in the end (山水有相逢). People, all the more so.
First a person, then a question. The two works move between a community and two individuals, tracing this principle from both directions.
The artist reads a visitor's pulse during the exhibition.
Nadine & Anne-Marie
Photography, pulse reading, collage, participatory practice
2025–2026
"When you placed your fingers on my wrists... I felt a release, as if I were letting a wall fall down, a wall I sometimes hide behind."
— Nadine
I photographed them and I read their pulses. One practice moved through their daily lives, walking with them, sitting with them, listening. The other moved beneath the skin, into what has slowly settled in the body over a lifetime: habits, tensions, years of cold winters, years of worry. The collage installations give form to what I felt in their pulses, bringing together materials they entrusted to me with handwoven fabric, wire, wool, cotton, and mother-of-pearl.
During the exhibition, I continued this work, offering visitors a one-on-one pulse reading and a portrait. Each photograph was printed and placed directly on the wall. The show grew as people came.
2025
Wood pieces, photographs, and drawings given by Nadine, with handwoven fabric and wire. Pulse reading transcription. 2026
2025
Photographs, personal archives, walnuts, and buttons given by Anna-Marie, with cotton, wool yarn, and mother-of-pearl inlay. Pulse reading transcription. 2026