I settle down on the sofa. Pull up my legs.
The same way I would if I were at home.
Or at my parents’ house.
“My Family” is a series of twenty-one fictional family portraits. Van IJken approached people she didn’t know in the street, purely selected on their physical features, and asked them to pose with her as if they were siblings. Strangers started to look like siblings. Siblings she doesn’t have, being an only child. Van IJken visually created a family she doesn’t have.
“My Family” refers to the changing status of intimacy in our contemporary lives wherein the borders between private and public have faded. Ultimately, the series raises the question of how we think of ourselves and our social context and what role photographic portraits and their construction play in that.