Dindi van der Hoek

Dindi van der Hoek is known for her unique and very distinctive photographic ‘water’ oeuvre. Photographing water reflections has become the most important basis of her visual imagery. As a viewer you become part of surreal images that evoke a certain confusion and seem to come from another world.

Dindi makes images that are partly photographed underwater. For years she worked underwater in a swimming pool, but at the end of 2019 she built a glass water basin in her studio and continued her experiments in it. In this new situation she investigated the influence of ink and milk in water and thus created new images that seemingly effortlessly combine beauty and tranquility with a ragged darkness.

Although the end result is physically a two-dimensional image, the path that Dindi takes is one of many layers, like a painter she builds her own world. She arranges all facets of the image: from making costumes, masks and attributes to making up the model. One thing she has no control over is the water. The water teaches her to let go of control.

Dindi: “With my surreal images I take the viewer on an “inner walk”; it is about identity and about masks, masks that people use to consciously or unconsciously cover up their true identity. Out of safety or fear. The water in my work reflects apparent reality and the viewer can be taken on a journey through their own illusionary world, such as false identities, limited beliefs or belief systems.Water is the most honest metaphor for life itself. Uncontrollable, transparent and incredibly flexible. Working with water has taught me so much in recent years and still does. Water tells me “Go with the Flow, be transparent, and take up your space, just like me.
I have been experimenting with water for more than 20 years and the impact of water in my work still surprises me. It is unpredictable, uncontrollable and indispensable!
The water reflections in my work have become a literal mirror and a guide. It’s about balance, taking your place and freedom, and especially about letting go of control. Because water is now given more space, my work has become much more playful and clearer in recent years.”

Dindi (1976) graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam in 1999. She is represented by ARWE Gallery in Gouda, Sille Gallery in Oudewater and Pulchri Studio in The Hague. She is also the initiator of the artists’ collective ArtNomaden, through which she independently organizes exhibitions with a kindred group of artists from the Netherlands and Belgium. Her work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally in recent years.