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Smiling photos, displaying all fingers intact –
photograph of Indonesian agency promotional material, 2016,
from the Series Apples for Sale, 2016-17 © Rebecca Sampson |
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| Florentine Riem Vis Grant 2018/19 |
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| Daily life of Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong |
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| 2 November – 16 December 2018 |
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Public opening: Thursday 1 November 2018 from from 5.30pm onwards
Book Launch: Apples for Sale Thursday 1 November 2018, 5.30-6pm |
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Gathering of Indonesian housemaids on their day off – Victoria Park, Hong Kong, 2017,
from the Series Apples for Sale, 2016-17 © Rebecca Sampson |
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Foam is proud to present the first museum solo exhibition of the German-American artist Rebecca Sampson (1984). Her work is a photographic study of the daily life of Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong. With little to no leisure time or personal space, these labour migrants construct a parallel identity using social media channels. Far from home and in a completely female subculture, the women develop an ambiguous sexual identity. Sampson portrays this population in a layered multi-media narrative, consisting of documentary photography, social media footage, and text.
Over 300,000 foreign domestic workers work and live in Hong Kong. The large majority is from Indonesia and the Philippines. These women usually work twelve hours a day, six days a week, under appalling terms of employment. Although they are officially entitled to one day off a week, this law is often not observed in practice. Sleeping on a mattress next to the laundry machine, in the kitchen or under the stairs, these women frequently lack private space to spend their scarce leisure time. While on a visit to Hong Kong in 2013, Sampson observed how hundreds of labour migrants – homeless for one day – spent their Sundays in the parks and public spaces of the city. The photographer spent many Sundays with them and gradually got to know them. She found herself at beauty contests, night clubs, staged weddings and lavishly decorated rental containers, where the lucky few who can afford it act out their one-day existence. |
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Preparing dinner in the toilet/kitchen –
5sqm apartment shared by 2 housemaids in Hong Kong, 2017.
from the Series Apples for Sale, 2016-17 © Rebecca Sampson |
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Due to the lack of personal space, and trapped in the rigid corset of their daily housekeeping duties, many women seek solace on social media, where they maintain extensively elaborated alter egos. For these women, photographs offer a powerful (and often the only) means of preserving a certain measure of autonomy. The mutual quest for intimacy and (sexual) identity is largely expressed online in the form of photographs and videos, shared on social media. Sampson collected selfies of domestic workers dressed up as comic book heroes or pop stars, as well as private videos of their daily work environment and photos of their improvised sleeping spaces. It is a world characterised by gender fluidity and a distinctly lesbian ‘sub-culture’, which the photographer attributes, amongst other things, to the impossibility of maintaining a heterosexual relationship or family life in an exclusively female community, and the loneliness and longing for connection that is so prevalent in such isolated living conditions. Sampson documented make-believe dream weddings between domestic workers – the one dressed up as princess bride, the other as the groom – and portrayed ‘families’ consisting of young girls and tomboys who lovingly tend to their dolls, as if they were their children.
The portraits made by Sampson and by the domestic workers themselves form a sharp contrast with the exemplary passport photos attached to their application forms, which Sampson was able to obtain by pretending to be a potential employer. These documents – for which the women pay steep fees to private brokers – reveal gross deficiencies in the local labour law. The artist juxtaposed the photographs provided by the agency – obediently smiling ladies wearing an apron with the text ‘Apples for Sale’ – with the images posted by these workers on social media. The discrepancy between the constructed typology of the model housekeeper, and images of their desperate attempts to escape from their dreary everyday life, begs the question which of the two images is furthest removed from reality. |
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Beauty queen contestants waiting for the recognition of the jury – housemaids on their day off in Hong Kong, 2016.
from the Series Apples for Sale, 2016-17 © Rebecca Sampson |
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| Rebecca Sampson (Germany, 1984) studied photography at Ostkreuzschüle - School of Photography and Design in Berlin. Her work has been exhibited internationally and was part of the exhibition Gute Aussichten Deluxe in Deichtorhallen / Haus der Photographie Hamburg in 2018. She is currently working on a science and art project with the Technical University in Berlin, and is a resident at the Goethe Institute. This year her first book Apples for Sale was published by Kerber Verlag. Sampson lives and works in Berlin. |
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 | OPENING AND BOOK PRESENTATION
The exhibition will be opened in the presence of the artist on Thursday 1 November 2018.
During this event Rebecca Sampson presents her new book Apples for Sale. The artist and Hinde Haest (curator Foam) will talk about Sampson's observations in Hong Kong and her inventive approach to documentary photography.
Guests are welcome at 5.30pm. After the book launch the exhibition will be officially opened. |
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Florentine Riem Vis Grant
Rebecca Sampson is the second recipient of the Florentine Riem Vis Grant, which was established in memory of Florentine Riem Vis (1959-2016). The grant is awarded annually with the goal of supporting young photographic talent in the development of their artistic career. |
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Celebration of wealth by housemaids with very little –
selfie for Facebook consumption, by Indonesian housemaid, 2016.
from the Series Apples for Sale, 2016-17 © Rebecca Sampson |
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The research for the project Apples for Sale was funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung in cooperation with the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin and within the context of the program Grenzgänger China – Deutschland.
The Foam 3h exhibitions are made possible with support from the Gieskes-Strijbis Fund, the Van Bijlevelt Foundation and Kleurgamma Fine-Art Photolab.
Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Gemeente Amsterdam, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation. |
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