patricia kaersenhout based this work on Maria Sibylla Merian’s book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705). To carry out her study of plants and insects in Surinam, Merian depended on enslaved women and their wealth of knowledge about plants and their medicinal properties. This knowledge was only taken seriously when it was adopted by European scientists. One thing the women shared was which plants they used for abortion, sparing their children the fate of slavery. After Merian shared this knowledge, the cultivation of these plants was banned and the women were deprived of an important means of selfdetermination. kaersenhout’s title refers to how the original inhabitants of Suriname, Black women, were erased from the history books. ‘Erasure’ refers to the action of deletion. ‘Palimpsest’ refers to a document that has been erased but through which earlier texts are faintly visible. kaersenhout gives these women and their stories their place back in history. [tekst 2025]
Het werk van patricia kaersenhout omvat installatie, collage, tekeningen, performance en film. In haar werk zoekt ze verdieping op thema's als kolonialisme, slavernijgeschiedenis en de Afrikaanse diaspora, en vertrekt vanuit intersectieel feminisme. Ze schrijft haar naam in kleine letters als eerbetoon aan de Amerikaanse sociale criticus en theoreticus bell hooks.