du 13 février au 6 mars / from February 13rd to March 6th 2021
solo show, 254Forest, Bruxelles
In her first Brussels solo show at 254Forest, Anouk Kruithof displays photographs and sculptures out of her new project Trans Human Nature. During long working periods in Botopasi, Suriname, a small village in the Amazon rainforest right on the Suriname River, she observed the transformative organic symbiosis of a rainforest mode of life ripe with traditions, and the dependence on hi-tech that the local people use every day.
The photographs are constructed out of various prints with images of Stock- photos representing the technological future. These images were printed on flexible, often partly transparent materials, such as fabrics, organic silk and pvc plastics. The concealed perils of the jungle and river formed the set in which the photos were physically and performatively constructed without the use of digital manipulation afterwards.
In Trans Human Nature Anouk Kruithof merges the spirit and strength of the Amazon’s jun-gle nature with next level intelligence of trans-human life. On the background, the ongoing global humanitarian crisis and the climate catastrophe provoked by technological ‘ad-vancement’ lurks like a predator under the water surface. Some last plastic remnants testify of future and present modes of life, like the dreams and memories of the robots that have started to merge with humankind and the natural world on earth. The works in Trans Hu-man Nature function as hybrid identities of our questionable future that open gateways to a more fluid world. One could see its beautiful complexities of humanity and the natural world aren’t separated and codified with borders, but keep breathing while showing the nerves of the world around us
Jesse wan Winden
