Dutch artist Anouk Kruithof is bridging analogue and digital worlds.

By Dan Rule NOV 2015

Anouk Kruithof needs a moment. It’s a rare intermission in our conversation, which traipses along somewhere between her New York apartment and my Melbourne office, the Dutch artist leading us off on conduits as divergent as portraiture, sculpture, spatiality and amateur bondage photographs sourced from a photographic archive. But for the minute, at least, she’s lost in thought.

“I’m never quite sure of myself in life anymore,” she offers, finally, drawing back on a cigarette before falling back into silence. “Do I live in a screen reality or in a physical one?” Another moment passes. “Sometimes I don’t even know it, because the screen is such a big part of your existence. The normality of it is quite remarkable.”

Orthodoxy is not a quality that troubles Kruithof’s various approaches and attitudes to the photographic image. Based in New York, the Dutch artist positions herself at the intersection of an analogue legacy and a digital world. Her images, sculptures and installations at once adhere and upend photographic process, traditions and tropes. The 34-year-old, who was born in the small city of Dordrecht, perched on the Netherlands’ southwestern flank, speaks of the flux besetting her generation of artists, of living betwixt and between technological and cultural epochs.

“It’s very much part of my generation,” she says, taking another drag of her cigarette. “I have been through the transition with photography, learning and developing and having that total analogue education with colour printing and everything, towards a time when almost all the darkrooms ... Subscribe to read this article in full