Eldorado: Ruth van Beek

Abstract

Ruth van Beek uses the established visual codes of photography to guide viewers into a belief in the incredible rarity or importance of the depicted object, even when that object is unidentifiable. From a growing archive of found photographic material, she arranges images in constantly changing ways. Specialist books and magazines from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s are the primary source for her odd and playful collages, with subjects such as tending bonsai trees, caring for cacti, and the Japanese art of flower arranging. Van Beek cuts and folds, adding paper shapes painted with watercolours and forging often unsettling or comical visual connections between the images.