Photography: Marlous van der Sloot

Marlous van der Sloot (1986) touches the boundaries of applied photography and contemporary art, with a focus on an immaterial world, of feelings and emotions. In her attempt to make the modern human aware of all the expectations and obligations in daily life, she gains more attention on the inner self.

Her work is criticism on the alienation of the human being. The rationalization of modern society and culture falsifies our immediate contact with the world. “Today it seems we are just reasoning. We forget to feel.” This ‘alienation’ resonates as her theme in all her visualizations, for she likes to fool our percepetion. The image is often not what it seems to be in the first place. Leaves on a tree are green balloons, an ice pop seems to be a tongue on a stick. But also human figures in odd postures and gestures, show us a sense of the strange.

The sleeping arm

We are all farmiliar with the feeling: a strange, numb sensation in the arm or leg, or you might not feel it at all. In a sober state of conscienceness you are aware — without giving it too much thought — where all your bodyparts are. Under normal circumstances, your body represents the experienced self. Then again, when your arm sleeps, it is a part of you on the verge of being lifeless on it’s way to become a biological attachment. The next moment it becomes the arm of a stranger…the sleeping arm is an answer of the body to the human who became less physical.

\ untill July 9, Prinsessegracht 4 The Hague