I am a storyteller of sorts, I use images, paintings, and written language. I am fascinated by the visual appearance of language; in my works, letters and words are the main material. I use their intrinsic quality, explore their form, and re-arrange them, in order to create a space that portrays human consciousness.
​
The Hebrew language is my pivoting tool. Like other languages, it has its inherent aesthetics and rich associative world. And for me, aside from it being my mother language, I see an opportunity to address conceptual art (which is mostly English-dominated) from a new prism and explore the unique qualities of the Hebrew language.
My research of the language began in 1992. In 2015, I did a site-specific installation at the location of the historic synagogue of Groningen. This project opened the door to a personal journey of discovering my Dutch-Jewish heritage.
​
More recent projects in 2023 "abandoned schoolyard" at Etty Hillesum Centrum and the planned project for 2024-2025, "Memory Boxes"
at the newly renovated Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam by the use of old archival material a landscape of events that took place during the period of the second world war reappears in the form of larger-than-life paintings accompanied by Hebrew texts added in a halo form to the subjects in the paintings.
sound and sound narration accompanied the work.
in these series, I create a network of personal stories that are woven throughout time.
these ongoing projects are done in collaboration with composer Amit Gur and curators , Ronit Eden and Birgitta v. Blitterswijk.
Photo: Chris van Houts