The series “Presences” arose when I began to inquire into femininity. I wanted to paint the elements that form the feminine. But they turned out to be diffuse.
Later, when I saw a retrospective exhibition of Hannah Höch at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 2014, I was struck by her collages. Despite being incomplete figures, they have extraordinary strength.
Höch’s work reconnected me with my own early collages. Perhaps putting seemingly disconnected ideas together would make an image of femininity emerge. But it didn’t.
As I didn’t want to include any ideas associated with women that could be interpreted in a negative way, only the presence remained.