Totem Folly by Jennifer Tee and Jonas Ohlsson

The patterns on the column and the various objects attached to the totem pole were created in collaboration with the Creative Studio. Tee and Ohlsson conducted a workshop where the idea was to have the drawings, texts and objects say something about the transitional area from the normal world to that of the more complex world of the inner self. In the end a selection of drawings and objects was jointly made. The drawings were painted on the porcelain of the column in China and supplied with comments and motifs by Jonas Ohlsson. The sculptures and objects hanging from the totem pole were made of more vulnerable materials and can be replaced by other works of art made in the Creative Studio. Objects and texts can be added over the course of time so that the Totem Folly grows by degrees.
The work came about as a sequel to the work that Tee and Ohlsson made earlier in the Winter Garden of the Zuiderpoort building of the Kennemer Hospital (see www.skor.nl/artefact-3544-nl.html). On the occasion of the opening of Het Dolhuys in 2005 a gift had been offered by the municipality of Haarlem in the form of a financial contribution enabling Het Dolhuys to realise an interactive work of art. Besides SKOR, the municipality of Haarlem has contributed to the funding and realisation of this project. The artists and Het Dolhuys would like to thank all the participants who contributed to Totem Folly for their special drawings and objects, and workshop leader Vera in particular.