Dark Pairing

The postcolonial view is the view of empathy and the desire to understand; (…) The postcolonial view recognizes and recognizes hybrid cultures and identities. - Paul Michael Lützeler

In Dark Pairing, T. Lauw addresses hybridity and colonial history through a dense interweaving of plants. Cultural inscription emerges from the impossibility of disentangling the materials. The net ceases to function merely as a device of capture; it becomes a carrier of alterity. Previously structuring space—defining inside and outside, front and back—it now relinquishes its dominance in favor of a shared, knotted network of yarn and plants. The shift from wire to textile suggests a subtler entanglement, yet the violence of colonial rule remains the work’s underlying thread.

By incorporating exotic plants, Lauw critically reflects on colonial claims to authority over Indigenous cultures. The historical fascination with the “exotic” was rooted in hierarchical constructions of foreignness. The collection of plants formed part of colonial expansion and may be read as cultural appropriation. Through layered construction, Lauw frames this appropriation as an ongoing process whose traces continue to shape identities.