In closing of the performance Returning the Gaze, a series of thirteen portraits on fabric are revealed created by visual artist Judith Westerveld, in accordance with the Sites of Memory team. They depict women of colour that lived in Amsterdam, or the former colonies of the Netherlands in the 17th, 18th and 19th century, that we felt needed to be given a rightful place in the exhibition Panorama Amsterdam of the Amsterdam Museum. Find information about ordering a portrait below.

On four long banners that drape the ‘catwalk’ where the closing scene takes place, the portraits that are presented are silhouettes linked to the names of twelve women of colour whose stories recorded in archives spoke to us: Charlotte Magdalena Reda, Elisabeth Maria Antonia Aspasia, Wilhelmina Kelderman, Cathalina del Monte, Clara, Francesca, Mimi Elizabeth Kambel, Lea van Bali, Serafina van Brazilië, Sara Malagesa, Chistina van Geugten and Juliana. Judith Westerveld created the silhouettes based on portraits made of women of colour by various artists, such as Rembrandt, Frans van Mieris, Cornelis van Dalen (II) and Cornelis de Bruin, who drew or painted them without recording their name. 

The silhouettes are placed against contemporary photographs of the places in Amsterdam where these women lived, worked, and died, such as the area in and around the Jodenbreestraat that was home to a small Afro-Atlantic community, the Jordaan, the grand canal houses of the so called 'Goudenbocht', and the Diaconie Oude Vrouwenhuis. Or the places where they were married, baptized and buried, such as the Möses and Aaron Kerk and the Zuiderkerk. Illustrations of hibiscus, ginger and podosiri (açaipalm), plants whose roots and leaves, flowers and fruits have healing properties, frame the portraits of the women. 

In the middle of the ‘catwalk’ the portraits of Susanna Dumion, Serafina van Brazilië, Mimi Elizabeth Kambel and Charlotte Magdalena Reda are highlighted. These are large rectangular fabrics, the women’s faces and names framed by the healing plants. Hibiscus envelopes Susanna Dumion and Charlotte Magdalena Reda. Ginger envelopes Serafina van Brazilië. Podosiri (açaipalm) envelopes Mimi Elizabeth Kambel.

Susanna Dumion’s portrait stands out, as it is the only one that is not a silhouette. In 1813, on the occasion of her 100th birthday, a portrait was made of her that has been preserved in the collection of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. It is a special document, as there are few portraits of (formerly) enslaved women whose name and life story are known. Judith Westerveld altered Susanna Dumion’s portrait based on the research the team of Sites of Memory did about her life. Exchanging her hat for an angisa folded in the pattern that communicates the coded message ‘Let Them Talk’, adding a shawl in the same batik fabric and a necklace, returns her Surinamese identity to the portrait. 

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Purchase a portrait

The portraits of Susanna Dumion, Serafina van Brazilië, Mimi Elizabeth Kambel and Charlotte Magdalena Reda have been made into a high quality art print and can be purchased by sending an email to info@sitesofmemory.nl. 

Size: 30 x 40 cm

Medium: Pigmented Inkjet print on Hahnemuhle White Velvet 270g paper.

Price: €40