My erotic childhood

The poem Sidder på min fornufts lille gren from Inger Christensen's first collection of poetry Lys (Light), is a source of inspiration for Susanne Hangaard’s exhibition “My erotic childhood”. The main piece is a 3 meter tall porcelain doll named Joy. The doll refers to the traditional western European porcelain dolls, as well as the modern Asian ball-jointed dolls, but of course, Susanne Hangaard’s doll is one-of-a-kind

The doll and the poem feature Susanne’s own childhood memories. Twelve of them, hand written on small porcelain plates, are hanging like pearls on a string. The memories point to some of the other objects in the exhibition which are:

The Oil Can
The Train Woman
The Smurf
The Radio
The Hairtowel
The Tree Trunk


The exhibition is walking on a knife edge in relation to the sensitive theme of children and their sexuality. The title sounds provoking, but when you take a closer look at the exhibition, you find that it is a visual statement for a common, although tabooed, part of life, that we all know to some extent from our own childhood.

The text for the 12 "memory plates" can be found HERE.

A video of The Radio can be seen HERE

Photographer: Dorte Krogh