Threshold

Jolien Van Goethem

I am Jolien (they/them/she/her), a visual artist based in Ghent, Belgium. My work has an autobiographical character, centering on themes such as grief, vulnerability, and physicality. As a crip and queer artist, I am constantly searching for meaning, for connection, and for a new body that can carry me. My practice is characterized by layering, rawness, photographic elements, a strong connection to nature, the presence or absence of language, and a poetic nature. Currently, I work mostly with photography, text, and textiles, with textiles serving as the central thread in my work. Words and poetry often merge with my visual work: sometimes they await a visual translation, sometimes they stand on their own.

Threshold

I concentrate

on a not yet existing feeling

now I want to feel something

that only exists in my head

I remind myself that I am here

lips enclosing

all this wetness and sweat

My body is aching

I want to be engulfed by them

taste the salt on my lips

pull me back into the current

spit out and broken

tiny shimmering pieces floating

over and over and over again

But they are afraid of hurting

someone who is already in pain

so our bodies keep lingering

somewhere in between

despair and unquenched yearning