This painting is set on a rooftop, deliberately the kind of space that is usually very exclusive  - especially in somewhere like New York. On this rooftop we also see speakers, for Veldkamp this allusion to nightclubs and dancing adds another element of exclusivity. He thinks about how not everyone is allowed into every club; he sees how these practices of exclusion are mirrored within global immigration law for example. The artist makes a point of painting himself into scenes of comfort, leisure and luxury in order to confront the conventional colonial gaze which instead associates people of colour with struggle and the wilderness. 

With this work, Veldkamp weaves multiple places and multiple selves into the same scene, drawing comparisons between  different versions of himself as well as between urban and rural life, NYC and Suriname.

Miko Veldkamp

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Miko Veldkamp