THE UNTANGLED TALES by Michelle Piergoelam
During this year, FRESH EYES talent Michelle Piergoelam (b. 1997, the Netherlands) has been granted the second place by the Zilveren Camera Price for Storytelling, and the SO Award for her series “The Untangled Tales”, a project focusing on the story of Anansi and the Angisa-folders in addition to ways in which these traditions allow us to learn about the history of the slavery years in Suriname.
Here in conversation with FRESH EYES, Michelle tells us more about her project.
The topic at stake is very intimate and touches upon social issues that are close to your cultural heritage. How did you get to know about these local traditions?
As I didn’t get much cultural background knowledge from home, I always wanted to discover more about my roots, and I have always been attracted to these stories to learn more about my culture and its values. In the Surinamese culture, you have a lot of stories about Anansi the Spider, so I wanted to dive into this a bit more. The deep and hidden issues generate a tension that attracts my attention and makes me curious even more.That’s also why my photographic research is focused on cultural tales and myths.
Could you please elaborate more on the topic of Anansi and Angisa? And if it is the case, how are they linked?
Anansi is a smart, tiny but brave spider. Spider Anansi goes through a lot, he works all day and there is a tiger who makes his life miserable. Although the spider was physically weaker, he tries to outsmart him by tricking the tiger. He may be tiny, but the battle is not over yet. This is the base of an Anansi story; the enslaved used this self-made structure to communicate to each other in a fairytale-like setting.Angisa are headscarves that are bound in a special way, every end result has a different meaning or message. Both code languages were used during the time of slavery to secretly undermine cultural authority. By using these elements, they could address their issues and complaints without the plantage owners knowing what they actually meant.
What does Anansi represent?
During the time of slavery, Anansi represented the enslaved. In this character they could put in their own fantasy, Anansi could do things the slaves weren’t able to do. Stories like Spider beats the tiger. By outing their imagination, it created a form of escape during those horrible times.
Nature seems to be predominant in your series, is there a specific reason behind this choice?
Nature is present because that was the place where these old stories were told. At night the enslaved came gathered together in the woods and told stories to each other. The big banana leaves are part of the act of expressing the stories.
There is another element that is particularly relevant in the series: hands. Why and how are they connected to the story?
Hands became the means of expressing the story to the audience. When you tell such a story it’s a must to immerse yourself into the story through movement and sound. The style of these photographs has also a small reference to the image that we all know of the hands of the enslaved through bars when they got transported.
Last copies of “The Untangled Tales” are available at michellepiergoelam.com in both regular and limited-edition version.