Language (in its verbal form),
is the main character,
and I,
I am a secondary character.
A secondary character in my own life.
And I keep screaming:
„LANGUAGE IS FAKE,
LANGUAGE IS FAAAKE,”
while everyone nods and tries to understand.
“But you are screaming “language is fake”, in a language.
Do you not see the problem?
Or are we the problem? Or are you?”
asks language disguised as another character.
“Honestly, I don’t know.”
Artist statement
Kristel Rigaud (b. 1993) is a Curaçaoan visual artist that is currently based in The Hague, the Netherlands. She attended the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, where she specialized in painting (BA, 2017), and obtained her MA Fine Arts at the HKU, University of the Arts Utrecht, the Netherlands (2022). She is interested in the question what language is and what it can be. Most recently, she focusses on the fakeness of literary language, which she explores by dissecting her paintings and drawings, and adopting their segments as characters in a possible fictive language. These characters often transform into performative pieces, where the viewer can experience a dialogue between the artist and her work (struggles and all), and her desire to slowly change existing expectations and norms around (the use of) language, reframing the heteronormative, ableist, racist, colonial powers that hold language in their grip today.
Ambitions
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Learned during the studies
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List of publications / exhibitions / prices / concerts / shows etc.
2021
"Virtual Empathy", AG, Utrecht
2019
"NYNM: 24 hours Down The Glory Hole", Worm UBIK, Rotterdam
"The Night of Experimental Boredom", 222Lodge, Dordrecht
2017
"ALYCA II", Kunsthal, Rotterdam
“KABK Graduation Festival”, The Hague
“Master Class Marcel van Eden & Barbara Seiler”, KABK, The Hague
“The Crystal Maze”, The Hague
“The Sharks Pretty Teeth Opera”, Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem (performance)
2016
“Scope”, Mint, Rotterdam
“Beyond”, Mint, Rotterdam
“For I Know That I Have Plans For You”, Nest, The Hague
Collaborative performances with art collective AWO
2016
“Root Camp”, Roodkapje, Rotterdam
“The Critical Mass”, WDKA graduation, Rotterdam
