Marit Westerhuis
Marit Westerhuis’s previous work concerned her own body and the role of technology. For her degree project at the Frank Mohr Institute (2016), on the subject of the quantified self, she subjected herself to a radical regime of examination with the aid of self-built measuring equipment.
During a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, she expanded the themes of her work. Technology and the speed of technological progress continue to fascinate her. Increasingly, Westerhuis also focuses on prehistoric technology, which she interweaves with subjects such as occultism, alchemy and the supernatural, which appear to be at odds with the modern ideology of progress and belief in technology. She also takes inspiration from Bronze Age and Stone Age rituals and sacrifices and views of nature from Germanic myth. Thus, she has been investigating the qualities of various types of fluid, from water to blood.
In her recent work, Westerhuis envisions a world in which humans are no longer the dominant life forms (or have exterminated themselves) and new ones have evolved to take their place.
YGA III
The YGA programme is a special joint project of NP3 and the Groninger Museum designed to supplement the selected artists’ existing creative practice. By providing vital professional support, NP3 and the Groninger Museum offer the participating artists a unique opportunity to take the next big step in their careers, to refine and deepen their work and to lift it to the next level. An important element of the programme is each artist’s development of a proposal for an exhibition of new work for the Groninger Museum. One of the three artists will be selected to realise their exhibition on the basis of their progress in the YGA programme as well as their proposal.
A partnership with Gerrit van Houten Prijs
