THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL HAS BEEN TURNED OFF (UP&DOWN)

This dyptich was made out of 2500 web photos from protests about climate change, women & LGBTQIA rights, BLM, migration and Covid19 around the world taken between the summer of 2017 and 2021

The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off (Up&down) (2021) is a diptic collage representing two fists. At a first glance the shape of the raised fists emerges from a pixelated dark background, which at a second look is revealed as the digital reproduction of photos of crowds of people. The shape of the two fists is given by the thousands of photos updated on the web between 2017-2021 of slogans and posters carried along protests about climate change, gender and racial advocators, migration and Covid19. Through her work Kruithof invites us to reflect on our own actions. By using a dazzling amount of detail to create a new image, she shows that although the influence of an individual may seem negligible, the effect can be great when people come together in large numbers.

The collage embodies the ambiguous, but referential relationship between surfaces and meanings. It does so by affirming its presence in the physical world, but decontextualizing the semiotic representation of the common language driving the urgency of social change. The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off (up & down) tries to amplify the iconography of the alliances among different advocators, which otherwise would get lost in the virtuality of the images. An image made of images, highlights the power of collective agency over representation. No matter how many revolutionary images we are subjected to, the road to social liberation is paved by actions, not depiction.