Three unique brooches, together representing a group of displaced people.

Unfortunately, there are large groups of refugees worldwide. As part of a group, you become anonymous and often invisible as a fellow human being. I wanted to give a face to the people behind the numbers in the media.

On the backs of shards of white glazed tiles, I spotted lots of different structures and shades of colour. They are part of the demolition waste used for walking paths. By grinding the shards, they changed from unappealing waste into cabochons. Their white sides form a group of simple ovals, but their backside turns them into individual cabochons. In that sense, they portray the human faces that lie behind the numbers. These portraits are dangled underneath the pin when worn, like refugees at the mercy of their destiny.

A set of three brooches and a plinth form together one single object. The pedestal confers on the brooches the status of a bust. The poem that describes this piece consists of nine stanzas. I made nine brooches that form three objects.

With this work, I took part in Eureka. A competition organised by gallery Friends of Carlotta on the occasion of their 25th anniversary. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they had to cancel the contest and the accompanying exhibition. They did, however, publish an online catalogue. Are you curious about the eureka feeling of the 86 other participants? Click here to download the Eureka catalogue.

I also wrote the BLOG Eureka about the creation of this series and the work process.