Anouk Kruithof

Ice Cry Baby (2017) is a found-footage collage comprised of YouTube videos of calving and melting glaciers captured by tourists and shared on the video channel. The emphasis is on the spectacular nature of the process and the desire to share something sensational, not least in the hope that the aura of the exceptional will rub off on the originator, too. There is, however, little in the way of resonance or empathy for the tragedy of the phenomenon, the drastic receding of glacial regions worldwide. Ice Cry Baby examines our relationship with the environment, shaped as it is by the glut of digital images, with the cracking ice symbolising the imbalance between man and nature. Folly (2017) is a hybrid of object and photography. The body, a fake rock of the kind used in set designs, stands on prosthetic legs, their feet fitted with golden LED-lit shoes. Folly is wrapped in a rubbery material printed with an aerial photograph of the Earth’s surface. Kruithof took the photograph off the internet. It shows a landscape scarred by environmental disasters such as oil spills and toxic waste accidents. The material is an anti-slip mat and, like the prostheses, alludes to humankind’s need for safety. Through the combination of these various elements in a pop aesthetic, Folly becomes a symbol of mankind’s helpless and inadequate attempts at countering environmental destruction.

Anouk Kruithof, born 1981, lives in Dordrecht, Netherlands.