Josha Zwanenburg
Keywords: New materialism, Politics of things, Queer theory
The bathtub the sheep and me on an island is a playful and explorative research, asking about the possibilities of quick fixing our normative behaviour around object and space. The research touches upon the domestication of space, construct of hygiene, the bureaucratisation of space, and the importance of disorientation. It draws inspiration from queer theory and new materialism, creating a framework that underpins the exploration of object-subject relationships. The work invites the visitor to play with the idea of objects residencing in their function rather then being the function they serve. Looking beyond their function, my project aims to find ways to eliminate the hierarchy of function and foster a collaborative future.
The installation defies fixed notions of functionality and purpose, opening up imaginative possibilities for objects and their transformative potential through humor. My relationship to the bathtub had a main role in this research and was the way through which this experiment could take shape. Through a series of dates, together we researched different potentials of “quick fixing the fixed ideas” I inherited towards objects and spatiality. The bathtub grew beyond a tool and their conventional meaning.