My house is my home

To understand my definition of “home”, I had to understand where I came from. According to the former Dutch squatting law, only three things are needed in the eyes of the government to turn an empty house into your home: a bed, a chair, and a table. I asked myself, if this was the Dutch government’s definition of “home”, could I extrapolate from this that the Dutch people might understand the idea of “home” in the same way?

Today, most of the old Dutch squats are gone, but their stories still exist. I am just one person among many, telling the stories of the places we once called home.

The bed plays a central role in the home. It can be an incredibly private and sacred space for a human. It is also the place where, each night, reality changes. We enter our dreamworlds and leave our “real” lives behind. We are no longer present in the “outside” world. Instead, we inhabit our “inside” world, where our dreams become our reality. The inside becomes the outside.

There are various stories of houses where people have experienced the presence of something outside of the ‘’real’’ world. How do we deal with these stories in our daily lives? I was inspired by the spirit houses I see every day here in Chiang Mai. Something we cannot define as reality becomes a visible element in the home. The stories we tell ourselves become part of our daily rituals. The inside world, or reality, of the individual becomes a fragment of the outside world and their home.”

Jonker is pursuing a master’s degree in fine art at the Visual Art department of Chiang Mai University. In this solo exhibition, the visual art element of her two-year master thesis will be displayed. The title of her thesis is -Reflection of the inside on the outside and the outside on the inside-. She explores the concept of a house, and how or if it becomes a home.

When pursuing her bachelor’s degree in fine art at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam (NL), Jonker specialised in the themes of public and private space. Her artwork after graduation was primarily concerned with public space, public rituals, and social issues. When she began her master’s studies, Jonker shifted her focus from public to private experiences, rituals, and spaces, while not neglecting the importance of understanding how public elements relate to private ones. Her personal experiences in the Dutch squatting subculture have given her a unique insight into the nature of public and private space, and have been a significant part of her research for this exhibition. The show incorporates various mediums including video, performance, painting and installation.