I chose a painting from 10 years ago when I painted these Maori-like images.
The face and form are like the New Zealand Maori guardian forms. Here in Holland they were called monsters. If people were kind they called them exotic. I didn't want them to be called monsters or exotic so I don't exhibit them here anymore.
For me it wasn't just that this particular language was foriegn to a Dutch audience but because they had recognizably non-western cultural elements they were categorized as "not serious" or as "quaint". This was painful for me because these emotionally charged works were made in response to the coldness of Dutch culture.
