The artwork is a collection of paper thin crockery, mainly teapots and teacups, arranged in clusters. Jetske Visser used these pieces in a short film called ‘Forgotten Memory’, which explores the everyday world from the perspective of someone with Alzheimer’s. By using such familiar, everyday objects, this helps the viewer to see how differently someone with Alzheimer’s views the world. The pieces themselves will dissolve when liquid is poured into them, which symbolises how their world is disintegrating around them. Since the normal purpose of a teacup would be to hold a drink, it is very alienating to see these pieces do the complete opposite of what is expected. This communicates the struggles that someone with Alzheimer’s goes through in a simple way that is tangible for the viewer.
All the individual pieces have the usual components to make up a normal teacup or teapot, including the handles and spouts, however, they are wafer thin. They are quite symmetrical and balanced which creates this parallel and similarity between how people with and without Alzeimer’s see these ordinary objects. This is effective as the difference isn’t so great that the viewer becomes unable to identify with these objects, and the subtle changes make the message of this piece more powerful. However this feeling of balance is thrown off slightly by having a crumbling nature to the vessels, with uneven textures and broken edges. These subtle features make the vessels so much more thought provoking.
Jetske Visser uses an existing teacup to create a mould from, and then pours liquid into the mould to create a bubbly and uneven texture that will transfer to the surface of the finished cup. She then coats the inside of the mould with a fine wax. Once it is dry, she takes the mould apart, as it is in two halves. This creates the broken lip of the cups, as due to the thinness of the wax, some of the cup is left behind in the mould. However this adds to the alienated feel of the pieces, as this lip would make the cups impossible to drink from.
Jetske Visser said that “The project explores the boundary between usability and alienation. Product functions are distorted, materials are different, and recognition fades away.” It is heart-breaking to think that this is what an Alzheimer’s patient sees every day when looking at normal objects, and how confusing this must be. Not only is it confusing, but by combining such thin, unusual materials with such a familiar object, this creates a feeling of unease and eeriness, which communicates effectively to me how scary it must be living in this world. This feeling is emphasised in the short film, as the viewer sees how wrong the world around them is, yet the people inside this world do not see how wrong everything is. This makes me feel so heart broken, because to us, the distortion of these objects is so obvious but to them it is not.
I think that Jetske Visser is trying to show us by using the fragility of these objects how uncertain and precarious the lives of these people are, and how all that they think can be destroyed by simply touching the teacups or pouring tea into them. There is also a feeling of isolation due to the composition of the pieces. By positioning all of the crockery so that nothing is touching, a sense of how lonely and trapped a person can feel when suffering from dementia is created.
I love that these pieces look like ghosts and shadows of the past, due to the thin and hollow qualities of the materials used. I think that Jetske Visser is trying to portray the breakdown of knowledge and what you once knew by having all the fundamentals of the objects there, yet they are just so lightly incorrect. This creates a feeling of sadness as you know that the person with dementia used to have a clear view of the ordinary, and yet now it is just out of reach.
Alice's Art Adventures 