knowing if i tell you everything everything will be all right

A story about the cycle of life: a celebration of continuity and connection, recognition and memory. Inspired by the correspondence (1944-2024) and archival material (1906-2024) of six generations of women in my family.

Knowing if I tell you everything everything will be all right (19th of March, 1945) my 18- year- old grandmother wrote to her mother. Inspired by letters written between my grandmother and her mother and her grandmother, I realize that the times we live in and the form of communication have changed, but the content and our feelings have not. It is striking how open and loving the women are, how vulnerable and honest. I recognize the sweet words, the language, intimacy and desire, which I also experience with my mother and daughters. We could have written the letters too. They form the inspiration and starting point for this project about six generations of women in my family.

This correspondence has given me an insight into the emotional lives of these older generations. Realizing and proving that my grandmother was also a girl who didn't tidy up her room, fell in love, was adventurous and naughty. Phases I experience with my daughters and recognize myself make me realize how life constantly repeats itself in succeeding generations. My grandmother's voice at 18 is the same voice I have known. We get older and older but substantially we don't necessarily change. My mother used to say, "my skin may be getting older but I still feel like that girl from back then." I now recognize myself in this quote and could have said it myself.

Trust, connection and belonging are important themes in my work and my subjects are often people closest to me: the main focus being my direct family, exploring both our individuality and that what binds us. Ever fascinated by our personal often unconscious behaviour I focus on playful and tender moments encountered in daily life.

I have immersed myself in archival material with albums, images, videos and text/letters as well as correspondence up until today, using only phrases and details that point to these six generations. I have dissected the letters and images as a detective to get to the root of my investigation, getting in closer and closer all the time to prove the recognition, repetition and connection amongst the women in my family as in life itself. This research has taken place in both text and images.

I have come to the realization that it is no longer important who is who or who says what because it turns out we are interchangeable. We roll from one role to the other. We evolve with time. From once being held we become the one holding and so forth. Using archival material as a source shows that life goes on: that in essence not that much changes as we get older or from generation to generation. One phase flows over into the next. I wish to emphasize that we are human, that we have needs, have been children and are all getting older.

Where I expected to tell a story about women in my family it turns out to be a story about life itself. A story about life cycles: about continuity and connection, a celebration of recognition and memory.

(Just a few quotes as an example:)

"knowing if I tell you everything everything will be all right"

"as you get older you'll realize that you do still need your parents and your family"

"you would laugh out loud if you could see me now"

"how well thought I knew you, but how little did I know of what was really going on in the depth of your being"

"I'm fighting against all wonderful memories of home with all my might, as they pop up all too often"

"borrowed your strapless"