Michelle Piergoelam – The Untangled Tales

Image from Michelle Piergoelam

The exhibition shows photographs from the ongoing project The Untangled Tales by Michelle Piergoelam (1997, Rotterdam). The project is a photo series of stories about hope and resilience and shows the ways in which oral traditions, traditions and code language give us insight into the years of slavery, and in Suriname the period after.

Michelle Piergoelam – The Untangled Tales

Location

Verwey Museum Haarlem

Groot Heiligland 47

2011 EP Haarlem

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Visual stories based on cultural myths

Examples of different code languages are the folded headscarves called 'angisa', stories about the spider Anansi, work songs and botany. These stories and traditions, usually passed down from Africa to Suriname, and from generation to generation, allowed enslaved people to share their thoughts without the slave owner knowing what was meant. These are different expressions of hope and resilience that were used during and after this period. It was a way to create cultural meaning and to feel stronger.

Michelle Piergoelam is a photographer who creates visual stories based on cultural myths, dreams and memories. Photographs in which cultural traditions, stories and landscapes are interwoven. She consciously uses indigenous stories to emphasize their cultural importance and as a testimony of underexposed culture and history.

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