A WORDLESS WHISPER
Sarah Mei Herman

6 November - 4 December 2010

Opening 6 November 17.00 – 20.00


Soledad Senlle Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Sarah Mei Herman (Amsterdam, 1980).

Thresholds and transitions within and between people form a perpetual theme uniting the photography and video work shown in A Wordless Whisper; the child on the threshold of the adult world and the thresholds between individuals.

Herman’s intimate portraits explore closeness within the family with a special interest in sibling-relationships. In her photographs and video’s, family members seem to have gentle, loving and tender physical encounters.

“The most fragile contact and elusive things between people often seem to exist beyond the reach of language. I am fascinated by relationships between people, the physical closeness between them or what sets them apart and the necessity of this physical proximity to others.”

Having grown up as an only child herself, Herman has long been intrigued by the idea of having a brother or sister. When she was twenty years old, her half-brother Jonathan, was born. Throughout the past five years she has regularly photographed Jonathan alone or together with his (and her) father. “I’m interested in the “triangular” relationship between the three of us. My memories as a young child, of the relationship with my father, are now in a way mirrored in my half-brother.” A selection of the extensive series of photographs she has made of them will be shown.

The long-term project Jana and Feby, is a series of works about the very close relationship between twin-sisters. Apart from a selection of photographs a video will be shown. Identical twins possibly have the closest familial relationship there is. The video Jana and Feby, which is one of the most recent works Herman made of the twins, shows that they have a unique way of making contact with each other. Their way of being together and their physical intimacy is enormously affectionate, witty, and unusual in an endearing and even almost enviable way.

Sarah Mei Herman studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, and recently received her MA in Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art in London. She has shown work in various group-shows in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. Also she was recently selected for Foam talent 2010. Furthermore, her work will be shown in the National Portrait Gallery in London for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010.

In 2011 she will be participating in the International Biennale of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean in Morocco.