Amrith de Zoete
During my graduation I was working in a slaughterhouse, where the excessive automation of the industry is clearly tangible. The soul-less but yet lively machinery is build for speed and inhuman precision is responsible for our pristine products which we consume. This observation made me realise: All that surrounds us is in a finalised state. Meaning the modern human has lost her connection with how products are being processed. As if they are partly blinded.
Modern men can be defined as a collection of “black boxes”, surrounded by items they don’t really understand. Not meaning that this disconnection is wrong, but by revealing and disarming the segregation forms the basis of my research and work.
So through observations in industrial facilities, I copy materials and techniques used in this industry, recreating and adapting them. Using conveyor belts, pneumatics and other engineering materials to assemble my installations. I am in a constant process of looking for objects and structures that I can use as a host for my thoughts.
The objects can be found in ergonomics and anatomical related shapes and functions such as air.
By combining bodily and industrial materials I attempt to uncover the kinship with the processing industry. Through opening up this relation I intend to express a feeling of responsibility for the input, what do we feed our machines and where do we meet.
My installations that stem from this methodology are performers who play a repetitive sequence. These sequences are pre-programmed, however the outputs are not entirely definite.
For example: Some of my installations destroy themselves or its direct surroundings over time. This uncertainty gives my installations a sense of unpredictability and suspense.
I want to show this bleak, alienated and yet fearsome history of all that surrounds us as it is part of us and defines us in our modern life.
