artist statement

Freijdag’s practice moves through subtle provocations, opening a space where the “natural” is questioned as a human construct. Her work looks at traditions and rituals, the ways we've "always lived", what if they are not ancient truths at all, but surprisingly recent creations shaped around the purpose of productivity? Through photography, textile, film, illustration and instalation, she explores the disconnect between modern life and our ancient human bodies. Bodies craving care and ancient natural rhythms, wired for interdependence.

Part of Freijdag's practice is bringing suppressed narratives and ways of being into the light. Like reclaiming the word gossip, from trivial chatter, to its older meaning: godsib, the circle of women who supported one another through birth and motherhood. Here quilting becomes a metaphor for collective care and creation. Freijdag’s work shows tactile contrasts of fleshy and organic tones and textures, bold blacks, and vibrant colours, bridging the physicalities of care and its psychological transformation and demands.

Freijdag’s process moves from research and obsession through understanding and intuition. Surfacing images guide the alignment of form and meaning, with material choices grounded in this foundations. She explores the material and symbolic possibilities of maternal labor, through research, reclamation, and craft, her work challenges individualistic and patriarchal narratives, advocating interdependence, care, and collective knowledge as the basis for a more interconnected future.

artist bio

Sanne Freijdag (b. 1991, Amsterdam, NL) is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher based in Baarn (NL). Her practice intersects feminist research, motherhood politics, and the visibility of women’s bodies and knowledge systems. Beyond her artistic work, she engages with care and collective feminist histories through activism, writing, and visual design.

Freijdag studied Fashion Communication at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht (NL) and attended the Artistic Research Master’s programme at the UvA (NL). She also holds qualifications in pedagogical childcare and birth education. She collaborates with; Het Buikencollectief on designing digital frameworks for conscious guidance in pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenthood, while also volunteering in a workgroup on the digitalisation of birth care.

Her work has been shown in exhibitions such as This is Essential Work (online), Between the Gates (Karlsruhe), and Ecstasy as a Technology of the Self, at KADOC (Leuven).

She is developing the Gossib Gathering, communal creation where the first edition was in collaboration with Textile Initiative at Lapland (Amsterdam). And the second in collaboration with Hannah Kindler at W139.

She will also be collaborating with Waag Textilelab on a textile research project in the near future, exploring the material and symbolic dimensions of milk and maternal labour.

Freijdag became a mother in 2018 and gave birth to her second child in 2022.