The Anansi (spider in Surinamese) stories originated in West Africa and came with the slaves to Suriname and the Antilles during the slavery period.
Due to the migration from these countries to the Netherlands, Anansi stories also ended up here. Often the moral in this spider’s stories is that everyone always needs each other.
This idea fits well with Karen Barad’s philosophy. I quote: ‘if you first start with matter, life and non-life are meaningless.
What Maikel Deekman wants to achieve with his Anansi installation is that non-humans and humans, African, South American, European, North American, etc. need each other on this beautiful globe, with mutual respect.
In his installation, the hard drives, four in total, represent the different ‘entities’. The fruit/vegetable nets form the globe.