Mark Manders
Monument (Keijiban)
2025
Six digital prints, two Polaroids, one C-print, one handwritten note, in a keijiban noticeboard
Circa 140 x 90 cm
Edition of two
Grief is surely something we have in common while we are alive together. However, over the last few years, I have become more and more aware that there is also grief that remains in the shadows, hidden and unrecognized by the other. I decided to make a monument for a certain kind of hidden loss.In the first place, this work is a monument for my mother, who lost her son soon after birth. At that time, there was almost no place to give voice to this deep existential grief. It had to remain silent. Grief and silence do not sit well together.
In this monument, I gently placed a hump of clay on the throat of a strong female figure. This small piece of clay speaks for all who have experienced hidden loss: loss of a pregnancy or baby, loss of the dream to have a child. It is also a monument for all parents who cannot have children, or couldn’t, or didn’t have a child and were left behind with an existential longing that finally turned into deep, interminable grief that needs connection and recognition.
It is a monument for shadowloss.
Mark Manders's exhibition took place at Keijiban from February 15 to March 14, 2025.