For me, in a strange way, decoration has to do with making connections. That’s why I fill in spaces in between: to dissolve opposition. To be overwhelmed by nature is to dissolve into a bigger whole. It is an inclusive situation, which for me is the same as a domestic situation.

Inviting strangers into your house can create complications. It is the same with ideas: to be open to new information also creates complications. I have always been suspicious of purity. Purity discriminates. Purity is about exclusion rather than inclusion. When one is open to guests and new ideas, it interrupts one’s autonomy. I like that thought. I want to promote hospitality.
I don’t think anybody is entirely male or entirely female. Maybe that is why I like gradients—one thing bleeding into another thing. When I was young I sometimes felt more like a male; when I had my children I became more female. Now, with menopause, I am more male again. I love this element of change.

I believe things should be allowed to mix. After I had my daughter I became more interested than ever in the images that she would see in her lifetime. I was shocked by how one-dimensional images of women still are in our culture. I call that visual loneliness. I think femininity still deserves and needs to be visualized from more perspectives. I would like to fill in these gaps in our visual information.—Kinke Kooi, November 2013