HI ! I’m Nommel
I am an Amsterdam based textile artist. I hand weave and knot wall hangings inspired by West African masks.
Infographic: how do you do it?
Concept
Life is a place where autonomy and self-determination cannot taken for granted.
With flex contracts, the entrepreneurial risk is placed on the employee, social rental housing is becoming scarcer and more expensive, the differences between rich and poor are widening. Ethics has made way for marketing, which give suggestions of sustainability and social engagement behind which revenue models are hidden. Communications departments present one-sided stories that undermine dialogues about painful truths.
How do you stand mentally in this society where different “truths” coexist? Those of prosperity and those of exclusion. Exclusion based on social class, education level, ancestry, definition of femininity or masculinity or sexual preference. Inspired by the principles of West African masks from Côte d’Ivoire, among others, I made a series of tapestries. Wall hangings that, in the tradition of West African masks, hold up mirrors, warn, amuse and reveal painful truths.
An antidote of the restrictive frames of reference.