Artist: Afra Eisma
Exhibition title: Feline Whispers
Venue: 1646, The Hague, The Netherlands
Date: February 14 – March 22, 2020
Photography: Jhoeko / images copyright and courtesy of the artist and 1646, The Hague
1646 is enamored to announce that Afra Eisma presents new work in her solo exhibition Feline Whispers at 1646.
Feline Whispers is inspired by Eisma’s imaginary cat, Larry, and the generosity involved in the speculative care for this pet. The exhibition will explore domestic space as an extension of the body, where nourishment and sharing are important counters to a world so full of deprivation and exclusion. Could ideas be tended to like they are our imaginary pets, feeding them, petting them, loving them?
It is said that cats spread a parasite that causes people and mice to want to be close to them, it is also said that cats have such fluid bodies they can be considered a liquid, they have soaked themselves into the fabric of the human home. The speculative pet, a cat, lives within Eisma’s work and like cats have domesticated themselves over time, Feline Whispers is an enchanting exercise how generosity is an infectious game of caring and being cared for.
Eisma shows elements from domestic life such as ceramics, tapestries, furniture or a robot vacuum cleaner as sites where a spirit of giving can emerge — sharing as an act of care for small imaginary pets and humans of all sizes. Opening on Valentine’s Day, join in to drink the love potion and allow feline whispers into your home and your body.
Afra Eisma creates autobiographical worlds that burst with energy. Using craft techniques in novel ways, she expresses personal stories that result in immersive and intimate installations of textiles, sculptures and ceramics. The explosion of works function as characters or imaginary friends that invite the imagination to infuse sensuality and passion with whimsy and lightheartedness.
Afra Eisma (b. 1993, lives and works in The Hague) studied at Fine Arts at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague and Central Saint Martin’s, London. She has been part of numerous exhibitions, among which a solo exhibition at the Vleeshal, Middelburg; presentations at Art Rotterdam; No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam; ABC Clubhuis, Antwerp; numerous group exhibitions at Billytown, The Hague, where she currently has her studio. Other projects include a residency in Cluj, Romania; screenings together with Adrian Bridget at, among others, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; East China Normal University, Shanghai; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht. Eisma was also nominated for the Royal Award for Modern Painting in 2018.
