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Marit Westerhuis

1992*, Amsterdam

Marit Westerhuis’s earlier work concerned her own body and the role of technology. For her Masters degree project at the Frank Mohr Institute, on the subject of the ‚quantified self‘, she subjected herself to a radical regime of (self) examinations with the aid of self-built measuring equipment. During a two-year postgraduate 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 on nature from Germanic mythology. 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 indeed have self-exterminated) and new ones have evolved to take their place, here nature and machine has become one.

Image credits:

  1. Portrait Marit Westerhuis. Photographer: Jan Tengbergen (NP3).
  2. Never love a Magnet, (2018) Acrylic, servo motors, foam, vinyl stickers, aluminium, quartz, iron filings, pololu chip. Photographer: PH. GJ. van Rooij
  3. Never love a Magnet, (2018) Acrylic, servo motors, foam, vinyl stickers, aluminium, quartz, iron filings, pololu chip. Photographer: PH. GJ. van Rooij
  4. Blót, (2019) Stones, aluminium, wood ,water, stepper motors, metal, acrylic, Arduino. Photographer: PH. GJ. van Rooij
  5. Blót, (2019) Stones, aluminium, wood ,water, stepper motors, metal, acrylic, Arduino. Photographer: PH. GJ. van Rooij
  6. Self Examination (No. 23 – Reacting to others). (2016) Acrylic, aluminium, LCD screen, Arduino’s, paper, ink, sweat. Photographer: Jan Tengbergen(NP3)