A shy meeting

What was your favorite toy? What profession would fit that toy?

Hey, the elevator is opening… don't they dare get out?

Your imagination can make so much out of a brown box. A cardboard box is also a puppet theater, graffiti wall, aquarium, a car, a washing machine, and the perfect hiding place. As a child, cardboard boxes were Jemima de Jonge's favorite toys.

The playing doesn't stop there in this work of art. Jemima is an artist, video maker, script writer, editor, director and actor in this work. Have you discovered her yet? Human behavior is the common thread in Jemima's work. Humor, tragedy, instincts and especially a lot of discomfort are incorporated into her characters.

For Jemima, cardboard has the warm and playful character she needs for her models. It is light and innocent. But, cardboard is also very stubborn and vulnerable. Exactly the contradictions that Jemima plays with in her videos. It is difficult material to work with, and some would even say: it is impossible. That is where the challenge begins for Jemima!

This cardboard box, with the circle of chairs, the small kitchen, the lamp and the elevator, raise more questions than they answer. What kind of setting is this? Jemima gives you breadcrumbs, and hopes that from there you can form your own meaning for this work of art. Who is this space intended for?

This work is not called a ‘model’ for nothing. Normally Jemima makes entire rooms out of cardboard, and the videos are life-size. Can you imagine how much greater the discomfort would be?

Jemima de Jonge (Rotterdam, 2001) studied at the KABK in The Hague. During her studies she was already picked up by the CODA museum in Apeldoorn, and other major Dutch collections. Jemima won the Ron Mandos Young Blood Award and the Heden Stimuleringsprijs.