Sara Sejin Chang’s (Sara van der Heide’s) work uses historical research to reveal colonial narratives and their continuities. Through an array of media, including film, writing, immersive installations, performances, and painting, she creates works that open paths for social awareness, repair, and a sense of belonging. For Global Fascisms, Chang (Van der Heide) presents 558 watercolours, titled Hollands Kabinet (2010–12), as a slideshow. The series can be seen as a poetical and daily act of resistance against the installment on 14 October 2010 of the first post-war Dutch government to be supported by the extreme right-wing party PVV. The artist made a watercolour for each day that the Dutch Cabinet was in office, concluding the series on 23 April 2012, when the cabinet fell. The durational piece plays on the twofold meaning of kabinet—both the colloquial name for the Dutch government, and the traditional Dutch storage furniture. By exposing the diverse typologies and the colonial history of the cabinets, the work troubles the extreme right-wing narrative that ‘being Dutch’ is reserved only for white citizens. Most of the cabinets were produced in the Netherlands, but during Dutch colonialism some were also crafted in former colonial territories such as South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Over time, the cabinets were produced in larger quantities, making them affordable for middle-class households. However, in these private spaces the cabinets carried traces of the colonial system that produced them in the first place. Through her daily conceptual strategy, Chang (Van der Heide) unsettles the prestigious symbol of the Dutch cabinet, exposing the ongoing impact of colonialism on domestic life and neo-fascist parties and agendas.

Work in the exhibition: Hollands Kabinet (2010–12), slide show of a series of 558 watercolours, Collection Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Acquired with the support of Mondriaan Fonds. Courtesy of the artist