Anybody home? Over de absente vluchteling in Olphaert Den Otters Home Made
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2025-07-04
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nl
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In Anybody home? Over de absente vluchteling in Olphaert Den Otters Home Made, I
explore the potential of the use of absence as an artistic strategy to produce images of the
refugee crisis that represent migrants in innovative ways, taking Dutch artist Olphaert den
Otter’s Home Made painting series (2008-present) as my central case study. Den Otter’s
Home Made series, in which the artist chooses to depict refugee camps without depicting the
refugees themselves, has not been studied in previous research, despite its interesting
employment of absence. This thesis offers an analysis of the implications of visually
obscuring refugees for the relationship between the audience and represented refugees. Den
Otter’s works are compared to prominent media images that often present a spectacularised
and fetishised portrayal of refugee bodies. I proceed to examine how through his choice of
medium and his application of absence, Den Otter compels the audience to reflect on their
views on the refugee crisis. An affective reading of Den Otter’s paintings illustrates that this
state of reflection is further stimulated by feelings of surprise and melancholia that emerge
while observing the emptiness in the artist’s compositions. This thesis argues that the
innovative use of absence in Home Made prevents arbitrary identifications of the stranger and
instead opens up more contemplative forms of reflection on the living conditions of refugees.
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Faculteit der Letteren