– Note on the text: Since April 2023 lucie draai has officially changed her adoption name into her name given by birth: Lucila Novoa. During the time of the exhibition in Daily Practice she was named lucie draai. In consultation with Lucila Novoa we decided to use the name lucie draai ~Lucila Novoa for her work before April 2023 –

lucie draai (1979, Bogotá, Colombia) presents ‘from yellow to brown (un)measured against a white background’, a performative work that she has developed in collaboration with Lucciana Bolivar and Ellen Mary Rooijakkers. Inspired by José Esteban Muñoz’s (1967-2013) ‘The Sense of Brown’ and ‘all about love’ by bell hooks (1952 -2021) lucie invited Lucciana and Ellen to be part of a transformative process of ‘displacement’, its meaning and manifestation.

In lucie draai’s work, displacement is key and she investigates all its connotations: the loss of a native place and environment, or a literal displacement, voluntarily or unintentionally, and thus ‘movement’. From her personal history of adoption from Colombia to the Netherlands, displacement has set in motion an irreversible process, in which questions about origin and identity remain unanswered, because crucial information is missing. Therefore continuous movement may be the only constant and reliable factor. From a decolonial, queer, feminist mindset lucie rethinks what it means to be human and how to reclaim an ethic of care and love. In various disciplines she tries again and again to seek a caring, loving connection with herself, her body, her history and her environment.

For ‘from yellow to brown (un)measured against a white background’, lucie invited her dear friend Ellen Mary Rooijakkers to design a costume for the performance to take place in Daily Practice. Ellen has made five ephemeral and literally layered garments from tulle, transparent but at the same time quite stiff material, each in a different (skin)tone.

lucie draai asked Lucciana Bolivar as a queer-person of color to take analog portrait photos, over a 24-hour period; a conscious choice to look beyond the white, patriarchal, normative gaze. Lucciana spent an evening, night, morning and afternoon with lucie, her partner and their pets. An intimate and realistic portrait on a hot, oppressive summer day.

When the sun shines, the figure of the street window moves through the space of Daily Practice. lucie draai made the movement of this shape part of the exhibition and therefore opening hours have been adjusted. Together with polaroids that reflect the performance on August 28, ‘from yellow to brown (un)measured against a white background’ shows various possible semblances of lucie draai, from realistic to transparent; movements of boundaries, colours, shapes and identities: a constant displacement.

lucie draai ~ Lucila Novoa (1979, Bogotá/CO) received her master at the Dutch Art Institute. Exhibitions, performances and workshops have been hosted by and/or were in collaboration with Kunstruimte H47 (Leeuwarden, NL), A Tale of A Tub (Rotterdam, NL), V2_Lab for the Unstable Media (Rotterdam, NL), Hordaland Kunstsenter (Bergen, Norway), Shimmer (Rotterdam, NL), Billytown (The Hague, NL). Residencies at Artist Proof Studio (Johannesburg, SA) en AGALAB (Amsterdam, NL). Works and/or publications are available via Billytown Bookshop, Books@RET, Framer Framed, Page Not Found, San Serriffe. lucie draai ~ Lucila Novoa lives and works in Rotterdam.

Ellen Mary Rooijakkers is a Dutch/Irish designer of sustainable textile and wearables. The world of fast fashion made room for a much more grateful form or (re)valuation of cloth in which nature decides on how to shape time and aesthetics. Besides composing natural resourced handwoven cloth, she also explores different methods of needlework, embroidery and natural dyeing.

Lucciana Bolivar is a Honduran/Colombian mixed-media artist and poet who began autodidactic photography and videography in 2011. She explores broad themes of philosophies, poetic metaphysics and current social structures. She is currently based in The Netherlands.