The Kitchen, IV from the series: The Kitchen, Homage to St. Therese

Photograph

-

Calvin University Center Art Gallery

In a dimly lit kitchen, a woman dressed in black sits contemplatively on the floor beside a pile of metal pots; scattered debris lies on the ground, while a human skull rests ominously on the countertop beside her, creating an enigmatic and intriguing scene.

In a dimly lit kitchen, a woman dressed in black sits contemplatively on the floor beside a pile of metal pots; scattered debris lies on the ground, while a human skull rests ominously on the countertop beside her, creating an enigmatic and intriguing scene.

Name/Title

The Kitchen, IV from the series: The Kitchen, Homage to St. Therese

Entry/Object ID

2017.5.1

Photograph Details

Type of Photograph

chromogenic print

Category

Interior Space, People, On-Display at Calvin University
Building, Architecture

Made/Created

Artist

Marina Abramovic

Date made

2009

Dimensions

Dimension Description

image size

Height

53-1/2 in

Width

49-7/8 in

Dimension Description

frame

Height

55-1/4 in

Width

51-1/2 in

Exhibitions

Permanent Collection: Center Art Gallery - July 21, 2017 - July 10, 2018
Permanent Collection responses to Jennifer Steensma Hoag's Sabbatical exhibition - November 29, 2022 - January 27, 2023
Spaan Collection: Center Art Gallery - August 27 - November 29, 2024
Loan – Spaan (Abramovic & Marcuse) @ GVSU – Margin to Mainstream – Recognizing Women Artists: GVSU Haas Center for Performing Arts – August 24 – November 6, 2026

General Notes

Note Type

Wall Label

Note

Expanded Wall Label: The Kitchen IV is documentation of a performance by Marina Abramovic in 2009. Staged in an abandoned kitchen in Gijon, Spain where Carthusian nuns once fed more than 8,000 orphans, Abramovic portrays Saint Therese of Avila, a 16th Century nun. Abramovic writes, “My entire childhood was about going around the kitchen. The kitchen was the center of my world. The kitchen was the place where I would tell my grandmother my dreams. The kitchen was the place where she would tell me stories, and the kitchen was the place where all the secrets were told. It was a kind of place where the spiritual world and the daily world met and mixed.”