New mural by Hadassah Emmerich in the stairwell of Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Kunstmuseum Den Haag has invited artist Hadassah Emmerich to create a new mural in one of the museum's monumental stairwells. The mural, Petals Pulp Papaya Plunge, was designed especially for this location and it surrounds visitors with a vibrant world of abstract plants and fruits. The work is inspired by the batik panels in one of the historic period rooms in the Kunstmuseum and enters into a dialogue with the architecture of the museum building, designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage. With this iconic commission, the museum is taking a step towards structurally giving space to female creators. The mural can always be seen when the museum is open to the public.

'With Hadassah Emmerich's mural, the museum promotes diversity and inclusivity in our collection by literally claiming space for female artists within the museum as an institution and the museum canon.'  

- Margriet Schavemaker, director of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag

In the monumental stairwell, which is over seven metres high, Hadassah Emmerich has created an abstract, colourful plant world: a lush universe of winding leaves, suggestive fruit shapes and distorted peacock eyes. A recurring motif in various sizes and colour combinations is that of the papaya. Emmerich chose this fruit not only because of its sexual connotations, but also because of her interest in the idea of bastardisation: the bastard, the hybrid species that does not fully belong anywhere and yet is very strong. This tension is a core motif in her work.

Emmerich's personal background plays an important role in this. She grew up in a Catholic village in Limburg as a non-Catholic girl, with a Chinese-Indonesian father and a German mother. From an early age, she experienced what it means to be seen as an outsider. This experiance of otherness informs her work, wich questions the idea of a of a 'pure' or 'original'. 

The large mural was created by Emmerich using a specific stencil technique: she cuts shapes from pieces of floor vinyl that she than rolls in printing ink, often in subtle color gradients, and then prints them onto canvas, paper, or, in this case, the wall. This technique results in a kind of monoprints: each work is unique, but certain motifs and stencils regularly reappear.

The result is an ambiguous abstraction. The enlarged, tropical coloured motifs - the seductive peacock eyes, the bananas, the papayas - are so distorted that they simultaneously resemble body parts. Whereas the erotic references in her earlier work were much more explicit, Emmerich here undermines any unambiguous interpretation. The historical perspective of the exoticising male gaze has been replaced by an aesthetic that is ambiguous and multifaceted. "I want to break through that one-way gaze and play with the erotic female gaze in a positive and humorous way."

Site specific

The design for the stairwell is emphatically site specific. Emmerich was inspired by the batik panels in the Dijsselhof Room, one of the museum's historical period rooms (located on the first floor near Emmerich's mural). Early in her career, Emmerich became fascinated by batik, the Indonesian technique of dyeing pieces of fabric. In addition to the formal and visual qualities of batik, its historical layers also play an important role in her work: the colonial context, cultural appropriation and mutual aesthetic influence associated with this technique.

In addition, the mural enters into an explicit dialogue with the building itself. For a long time, it remained underexposed that architect Berlage was strongly inspired by the architecture of the then colony of the Dutch East Indies during his trip there in 1923, something that is also reflected in the architecture of the museum. This new mural addresses and highlights that aspect of the architecture.

Visible statement 

The identity of the Kunstmuseum is largely determined by its collection, which historically consists mainly of works by male artists. The museum is actively committed to bringing more balance to the collection, among other things by literally tackling the walls of the museum. With an eye for diversity and broader representation, the Kunstmuseum wants to give female artists a prominent place in its collection.  

In this context, the Kunstmuseum is inviting three female artists to create new murals in three of the four monumental stairwells. Hadassah Emmerich is the first artist, followed later this year by Natasja Kensmil and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum. The new murals give the building and the collection a visible, contemporary impulse while building on the long tradition of murals in the museum.  

About Hadassah Emmerich

Hadassah Emmerich (Heerlen, Netherlands, 1974) lives and works in Brussels. After studying painting at the art academy in Maastricht, she continued her studies at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Ghent and later at Goldsmiths College in London. Emmerich began working with a form of expanded painting at an early age. She experiments with different types of paint, techniques and media. Her work has been exhibited in many places, including Kunsthal Kade, Bonnenfanten Museum and Centraal Museum. Her work is included in collections such as the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Muzee Oostende, Museum Voorlinden and Kunstmuseum Den Haag. Her work can also be seen in the form of murals in public spaces, for example in the Erasmus Hospital in Rotterdam, the Papiermolentunnel in Groningen and the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta (Indonesia). Emmerich is represented by Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam.