ENCLOSED CONTENT CHATTING AWAY IN THE COLOUR INVISIBILITY

2009–ongoing | 410 cm x 230 cm installation out of approximately 3500 so found coloured books + video loop + photograph

Enclosed content chatting away in the colour invisibility is a work consisting of an installation of approximately 3500 found colored books, a video loop with sound, and a photograph depicting the respective books. Throughout the year of 2008, Kruithof collected these 3500 books, most of which are from the early 20th century. Some were acquired from Eastern Europe, but had been written in the DDR and consequently dismissed after the state had collapsed. In today’s Germany, these books are usually sold in ‘1Euro Bookshops” or end up at the ’Papierbank,’ a recycling dump for paper, where they are destroyed or attending their slow decay. Kruithof revitalizes these books by using them as objects or building materials to construct a wall.

Color and size determine the rhythm of this haptic installation that is always presented a different order. Seen from a closer distance, these books might evoke abstract landscapes. Yet, these piles of old books can also trigger the idea of pixels and thereby allude to the continuous progress of digitalization (e.g. e-books) within our 21st century society. In doing so, Kruithof plays with not only physically, but also conceptually with the notions of stability and precariousness. It is particularly this notion of instability that sets the main theme of Kruithof’s video, in which she features one version of her book installation. Projected 1:1, the viewer witnesses the sudden collapse of the wall, which is accompanied by the sound of a crash, to see it then being re-built by an invisible hand. With this unexpected, unpredictable cycle of transformation, Kruithof examines the status of physical objects in our digital age, and also redirects our attention to the immaterial value of enclosed, forgotten or disregarded cultural goods.

EXHIBITIONS

2021 One and one is three (ongoing), Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar
16.06.2017–19.08.2017 Enclosed Content Chatting Away in the Colour Invisibility (solo), Casemore Kirkeby, San Francisco
08.10.2016 – 22.01.2017 Oogst: 10 jaar Volkskrant Beeldende Kunstprijs, Het Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, NL
16.11.2014−01.02.2015 L’art se Livre, MBAL, Le Locle, Switzerland
19.01.–23.02.2013 The Feverish Library, Capitain Petzel gallery Berlin
24.05.2012–23.06.2012, Lost & Found (error one), De Studio, Antwerp, Belgium
06.04.2011-22.05.2011 Becoming Blue (solo), Exposorium van de Vrije Universiteit te Amsterdam
25.02.2011–12.03.2011 Shifting Colour (solo), DOK library concept center, Delft, NL
13.03.2010–01.05.2010 Becoming Blue (solo), gallery Adler, Frankfurt, Germany
05.02.2010–12.09.2010 Holland Papier Biënnale, CODA Museum, Apeldoorn NL
26.09.2009–03.01.2010 Becoming Blue (solo), Museum Het Domein, Sittard, NL
20.02.2009–08.03.2009 Becoming Blue(solo), Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, GE