Konbini: Nuit Blanche 2017 Review by Violaine Schutz, 2017, ONLINE
Projects
Critical Mass : Pure Immanence
Title: Critical Mass: Pure Immanence
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2015
Materials: Full HD video with stereo sound
Dimensions: 300 × 135 cm (screen)
Length: 11-minute loop
Credits:
Camera, video editing, lyrics, and music arrangement by Anne de Vries and Q-dance, including AquaDome, LPIN-AX, Phill Niblock, Thomas Ankersmit, and others.
Documentation:
The 9th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Nuit Blanche Paris, Cell Projects London, Fries Museum, and Foam Museum.
December 2016 : Flash Art Magazine 311 / Art & Clubbing
Flash Art Magazine: Issue 311 “Transformation Through Depoliticization” by Anne de Vries, 2016, ONLINE/PRINT/PDF
Cover artist: Anne de Vries
OBLIVION
Title: Oblivion
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2016 and 2018
Dimensions: 380 x 200 x 60 cm
Materials: Sand, stones, wood, plastic, aluminum, paint, PVA, styrofoam, miniature advertisement campaign, miniature graffiti, miniature truss system, miniature LED projector, miniature Hi-Fi system.
About:
Oblivion is a hardstyle event diorama at a scale of 1:87, featuring several texts produced specifically for this installation.
Exhibition views from:
The 9th Berlin Biennale at KW in Berlin; Fries Museum in Groningen; KUMU Museum in Tallinn.
Read more about this project HERE in Flash Art Magazine.
August 2016 : Review and Interview with Anne de Vries
Entwurf zu ‘kleine Freude’ Etude pour ‘Petites joies’
Title: Entwurf zu ‘kleine Freude’ / Étude pour ‘Petites joies’
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2015
Dimensions: 517 × 347 × 50 mm
Edition: Unique, signed
Materials: Archival UV print on Photo Forex, wooden frame with acrylic paint
Techniques: Digital collage combining photographs taken by the artist at various crowd gatherings with laser light shows, and visual elements from works by Wassily Kandinsky.
The title references Kandinsky’s compositions and writings on the relationship between people, music, and color.
April 2016 : Metropolis M
SUBMISSION
Title: Submission
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2015
Dimensions: Variable
Materials: 4-track audio, video live streams, fiberglass, wood
About:
Inside the first gallery, Submission pulls together threads of the human psyche by exploding the concept of a head into a variety of architectural structures and symbolic representations—paired with the very technologies we use to stimulate thought and communication. Live-streamed screens of global locations transport viewers from the bustling streets of Times Square, New York City to the tranquil stillness of a South American birdwatching site. Time zones shift to accommodate the viewer’s perception of presence.
Each makeshift architectural shelter contains conversations between a mediator—commissioned by the artist—and representatives from a range of disparate global institutions: monasteries, shelters, detention centers, swingers clubs, and meditation retreats. Through interviews that explore each institution’s philosophy and mission, a layered soundscape emerges. The resulting audio simulates overlapping codes, rituals, and beliefs that begin to blend into one unified sonic texture.
Technology assumes an anthropomorphic form, and the dialogue reveals the merging of psychological, institutional, and technological environments. Language fragments into AI-like loops, suggesting the human mind as both subject and extension of the automated tools it creates.
Exhibition views from:
Solo exhibition Submission at Cell Project Space, London
Solo exhibition Public Cortex at Onomatopee, Eindhoven
Hybrid Layers at ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe
Boids
Title: Boids
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2015
Dimensions: Various
Materials: Polystyrene with UV print on vinyl wrap
Subject Matter:
Composed of photographic imagery from a range of social, political, and religious gatherings, including:
- Hong Kong Protest, 2015
- Hajj in Mecca, September 2014
- Tunisian Protest, January 2011
- Je Suis Charlie March, Place de la République, Paris, January 2015
- Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, Washington D.C., August 1963
- Guatemala Rises Up, May 2015
- …and others
Conceptual Background:
Before feathers enabled flight, they first evolved in dinosaurs for terrestrial functions—such as thermal regulation, camouflage, or signaling. Over geological timescales, these structures were co-opted into entirely new uses, eventually granting birds the power of flight. In evolutionary biology, this phenomenon is known as exaptation: a trait originally evolved for one purpose that is later repurposed for another.
Recent computational models of E. coli suggest that many traits begin as exaptations. This concept counters deterministic views of biology, emphasizing instead contingency and transformation. If forms and functions in nature can be radically retooled—enabling creatures to fly over mountains or swim through oceans—it is because matter itself is inherently open, mutable, and devoid of fixed essence.
The world is constantly reconfiguring itself. Structures we see today may serve vastly different purposes tomorrow. Each moment offers a new configuration—dependent, impermanent, and full of latent potential. The artworks in Boids engage with this idea: that form, function, and meaning are fluid, and that the universe, like the self, is continually becoming.
Installation views from E_MERGE at Foam Museum, Amsterdam and ‘Asdzáá nádleehé‘ curated by Timur Si-Qin at Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Trails Rising
Photo by Andrea Rossetti
Title: Trails Rising
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2011
Dimensions: Variable, from 223 cm up to 12 meters high
Materials: Plastic, sand, metal
About:
The sculpted totem poles Trails Rising are composed of sand mixed with epoxy clay, marked by the tread patterns of various sneakers. These imprints—shaped by ergonomic footwear designed to enhance bodily performance—form a record of movement that merges into collective patterns across a mutable surface. The work evokes a sense of shared motion, as if solitary runners converge in a symbolic and physical ascent.
Referencing Constantin Brancusi’s Infinite Column—a WWI memorial in Târgu Jiu symbolizing ascension—the installation reinterprets monumentality through a layered, process-driven lens, challenging essentialist ideas of transcendence and enhancement.
Exhibition views from:
Sandy Brown, Berlin
Éric Hussenot, Paris
Fluxia, Milano
The Composing Rooms, London
GILLETTE, IDEAL CITY PROPOSAL
Title: GILLETTE’S, IDEAL CITY PROPOSAL
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: Various
Materials: Double-sided UV prints on Photo Forex, PVC, mirror, coated metal hanging system, screws, Gillette razors, clothing.
Conceptual Background:
This body of work draws inspiration from The Dream of King Camp Gillette and his radical proposal for a future urban society. Before becoming known for inventing the safety razor and establishing a major industrial enterprise, King Camp Gillette (1855–1932) authored several books and pamphlets outlining his vision for a transformed economic and social system.
In his first major tract, The Human Drift, Gillette proposed the creation of a single, highly organized, technologically advanced megacity called “Metropolis.” Designed to house the entire population—excluding agricultural and rural labor—this urban complex would be constructed using cutting-edge materials and systems. Gillette envisioned this society as being administered by “The United Company,” a unified organization responsible for producing, manufacturing, and distributing all necessities of life.
Although often grouped with utopian literature such as Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, Gillette’s proposal reads not just as speculative fiction, but as a sincere (if eccentric) urban and social engineering plan. As both an inventor and idealist, Gillette’s “Metropolis” functions as a kind of verbal prototype—an industrial-era working model of a unified and optimized future city.
Artistic Approach:
Through precision photographs of Gillette’s shaving products, used as the basis for sculptural forms and visual layering, this work explores the intersections of utopian architecture and the refined industrial design of Gillette’s iconic shaving systems.
Around the Eye
Title: Around the Eye
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2013
Materials: Digital print on extruded polystyrene (XPS), plexiglass, aluminum frame
Steps of Recursion – ICG
Title: Steps of Recursion on rail – ICG
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2012
Dimensions: 135 × 110 × 75 cm
Materials: Steel frame, UV print, plastic
Steps of Recursion – Tuned
Title: Steps of Recursion – Tuned
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2012
Dimensions: 220 × 150 × 65 cm
Materials: Stainless steel construction with photographic prints on plastic
Image Transfers
Title:
Image Transfers – Apple, Pear and Banana
Image Transfers – Apple, Avocado and Lemon
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2012
Dimensions: 160 × 70 cm
Materials: Digital print on photo paper
About:
These two digital prints deconstruct their own production process. Beginning as still-life photographs of supermarket fruit, the image journeys through the digital pipeline—lens, sensor, wiring, computer components, software—until it materializes as ink on paper, hung on the wall with hooks and clips.
The deceptively simple arrangement is layered with an informational panorama that reveals the production chain’s circumstances and locations, positioning the fruit as the final eventuation of this global process. Superimposed in small type over the still-life are inscriptions including the retailer’s name and address and the primary production companies involved, tracing the artwork’s roots in today’s global economy.
Exhibition History:
Winterthur Museum in Winterthur; Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem; Foam Museum in Amsterdam; Sandy Brown in Berlin; Nest Museum, Den Haag; Martin van Zomeren, Amsterdam
Image Transfer : Jalapeños, Rucola, Peanuts, Champignon
Titles:
Image Transfer: Jalapeños, Rucola, Peanuts
Image Transfer: Jalapeños, Peanuts, Champignons
Image Transfer: Rucola, Jalapeños, Peanuts
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2019
Dimensions: 160 × 70 cm (each)
About:
These digital prints deconstruct their own production process. Beginning as still-life photographs of supermarket produce captured by a digital camera, the image travels through the entire digital pipeline—lens, sensor, wiring, computer components, software—until it materializes as ink on paper, hung on the wall with hooks and clips.
The deceptively simple arrangement is layered with an informational panorama that reveals the circumstances and locations of the production chain, positioning the produce as the final eventuation of this global process. Superimposed in small type over the still-life are inscriptions including the retailer’s name and address and the primary production companies involved, tracing the dynamic roots of the artwork’s production in today’s global economy.
CAVE2CAVE2CAVE
Title: CAVE2CAVE2CAVE
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2019
Dimensions: Overall width 700 cm, comprising 150 × 100 × 3.5 cm stretchers
Materials: UV-RGB-W print on mirror-coated PVC; aluminum P35 stretchers with aluminum artist frames
CAVE2CAVE 2019
Titles:
CAVE2CAVE_1379, CAVE2CAVE_0671, CAVE2CAVE_0807,
CAVE2CAVE_9850, CAVE2CAVE_1339, CAVE2CAVE_0613
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2019
Dimensions: 150 × 100 × 3.5 cm (each)
Materials: UV-RGB-W print on mirror-coated PVC, mounted on aluminum P35 stretchers, housed within aluminum artist frames
CAVE2CAVE
Title: CAVE2CAVE
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2011–2019
Dimensions: 130 × 100 cm (51.18 × 39.37 in)
Materials: UV print on mirror foil, aluminum frame
About:
This work features photographs of wrinkled reflections of cave paintings, UV-printed onto mirror foil stretched over a frame. The reflective surface creates a dynamic interaction between image and environment, emphasizing the interplay of history and contemporary technology.
October 2015 : The Photograph as Contemporary Art
Contribution to the final chapter from the book:
The Photograph as Contemporary Art – 3rd edition by Charlotte Cotton, Published by Thames & Hudson, 2014, PRINT
ISBN-13: 978-0500204184
Interface
Two artworks, Interface – Easy Jet and Interface – Musashi, were installed in the exhibition RUIS, curated and acquired by Melanie Bühler at the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem.
Interface – Downstairs
Title: Interface – DownstairsArtist: Anne de VriesYear: 2014Dimensions: 164 × 124 cmMaterials: Two digital prints on Photo Forex sheets with CNC cut-outs; painted wooden frameAbout:The Interface project is informed by processes of tracking thought and observation, and by an interest in how the constant exchange between the two might be visualized. This inquiry was shaped by broader […]
Interface – Musashi
Title: Interface – Musashi
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 164 × 124 cm
Materials: Two digital prints on Photo Forex sheets with CNC cut-outs; painted wooden frame
About:
The Interface project is informed by processes of tracking thought and observation, and by an interest in how the constant exchange between the two might be visualized. This inquiry was shaped by broader technological preoccupations of the time, particularly in the early days of A.I., when there was a growing attempt within the tech world to model and make legible the often messy cognitive processes through which we perceive and understand reality. The work also engages with the history of photography and its longstanding investment in the documentation of “reality.” By using photography to visualize perception as fragmented, layered, and non-linear, the project questions ideas of photographic clarity and objectivity, suggesting instead that our experience of the world may be closer to painting – subjective, composite, and constructed – than we might like to admit.
Interface – Il Casolare
Title: Interface – Il Casolare
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 164 × 124 cm
Materials: Two digital prints on Photo Forex sheets with CNC cut-outs; painted wooden frame
About:
The Interface project is informed by processes of tracking thought and observation, and by an interest in how the constant exchange between the two might be visualized. This inquiry was shaped by broader technological preoccupations of the time, particularly in the early days of A.I., when there was a growing attempt within the tech world to model and make legible the often messy cognitive processes through which we perceive and understand reality. The work also engages with the history of photography and its longstanding investment in the documentation of “reality.” By using photography to visualize perception as fragmented, layered, and non-linear, the project questions ideas of photographic clarity and objectivity, suggesting instead that our experience of the world may be closer to painting – subjective, composite, and constructed – than we might like to admit.
Interface – Easy Jet
Title: Interface – Easy Jet
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 164 × 124 cm
Materials: Two digital prints on Photo Forex sheets with CNC cut-outs; painted wooden frame
About:
The Interface project is informed by processes of tracking thought and observation, and by an interest in how the constant exchange between the two might be visualized. This inquiry was shaped by broader technological preoccupations of the time, particularly in the early days of A.I., when there was a growing attempt within the tech world to model and make legible the often messy cognitive processes through which we perceive and understand reality. The work also engages with the history of photography and its longstanding investment in the documentation of “reality.” By using photography to visualize perception as fragmented, layered, and non-linear, the project questions ideas of photographic clarity and objectivity, suggesting instead that our experience of the world may be closer to painting – subjective, composite, and constructed – than we might like to admit.
Mind Manager
Title: Mind Manager
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2013
Dimensions: 200 × 65 × 175 cm
Materials: Stainless steel, digital monochrome print on milled plexiglass.
Places to see
Title: Places to See
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2013
Dimensions: 260 × 65 × 160 cm
Materials: Stainless steel, digital monochrome print on milled plexiglass
Edition: Unique
Copyright: Anne de Vries
Login, for two
Title: Login, for two
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2013
Dimensions: 260 × 65 × 160 cm
Materials: Stainless steel, digital monochrome print on polished and milled plexiglass
Viewfinder
Title: Viewfinder
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2013
Dimensions: 45 × 65 × 175 cm
Materials: Stainless steel, digital monochrome print on plexiglass, key, medical rubber tubes, colored solution.
At the Shores
Title: At the Shores
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2013
Dimensions: 65 × 160 cm
Materials: Digital prints, framed
About:
While many of the computer-generated events assigned to these random dates will probably not take place, some computer-generated speculations—such as those made by NASA and the scientific community at large—may indeed occur.
Nightwatch at the parking lot
Title: Nightwatch at the Parking Lot
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: Variable, large-scale installation
Materials: Metal eyeglasses, walls, furniture, surveillance camera systems, LCD screens, fabrics, and other props
Documentation: The Moving Museum, Şişhane Autopark, Istanbul
FORECAST
Title: Forecast
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2011
Materials: HD video projection
Dimensions: 300 × 135 cm (projection screen)
Length: 5-minute loop
Sound: James Whipple (aka M.E.S.H.)
Text: Excerpts from Bertrand Russell’s A.B.C. of Relativity: Philosophical Consequences
About:
Forecast is a computer-generated video featuring a camera panning through photographs of a blue sky with clouds over Amsterdam. A slow voice guides the viewer through selected passages from Bertrand Russell’s A.B.C. of Relativity, explaining distinctions between actuality and perception and addressing relativity theory and concepts of space-time. Midway through the work, the spoken text transitions into music, leading the viewer into a more associative and immersive experience.
Documentation: Views from Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Denmark, Max Mayer Gallery in Dusseldorf, and E_MERGE at Foam Museum
Watch the preview version of FORECAST here
Whole World Overview
Title: Whole World Overview
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2011
Dimensions: 220 cm (diameter)
Materials and techniques: UV print on Dibond and 4 mm Plexiglass
About:
This artwork was created by Anne de Vries in collaboration with NASA, using Whole World satellite photography. The imagery is stretched into a circular format (from the North Pole to the South Pole), evoking ancient sun crosses and sun wheels.
Documentation: Future Gallery Berlin
All days
Title: All Days of Aquarius
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2011
Dimensions: 188 cm × 42 meters (74.02 × 1653.54 inches)
Material: Solvent print on vinyl
About:
This calendar presents every single day of a 2150-year time period, beginning on February 4, 1962, and continuing through the year 4114. With a total length of 42 meters, it can be displayed in various ways—rolled, or unrolled to fit the exhibition space.
Documentation views from:
TruEye SurView at W139 in Amsterdam, ‘Superficial Hygiene‘ at Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, Max Mayer Gallery in Dusseldorf, and E_MERGE at Foam Museum (by GJ van Rooij and others)
Hold on, Auto Future
Title: Hold On, Auto Future
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2013
Dimensions: 250 × 450 × 300 cm
Materials: Stainless steel; solvent-printed bath towels with data
About:
Towels hang from the handrail like remnants of physical activity. Printed on these towels are computer-generated texts containing data about events scheduled from 100 to several thousand years into the future. These texts are the result of random web-based searches, revealing an auto-generated vision of the future.
Air Gap Hold On
Title: Air Gap Hold On
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2012
Dimensions: 117 × 60 × 8 cm
Materials: Stainless steel; digital print on towel; digital print on plastic
About:
The title refers to the concept of an air gap in both plumbing and networking contexts. In plumbing, an air gap is the unobstructed vertical space between a water outlet and the flood level of a fixture, preventing contaminated water from flowing back into the potable water system. In networking, an air gap is a security measure that physically isolates secure computer networks from insecure ones—such as the public internet—to prevent unauthorized data flow. The work reflects on ideas of separation, protection, and control.
Infinite Value
Title: Infinite Value
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2009
Dimensions: 5 × 74 × 53 cm
Materials: Three digital prints layered within a custom wooden frame
About:
This work features three digital prints overlaid inside a custom wooden frame. By milling out sections of the first print, another version of the same image is revealed, creating a layered visual effect.
Katanga Bub
Title: Katanga Bub
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2011
Dimensions: 90 × 144 cm
Materials: Mobile devices mounted on a lightbox displaying a press image of the Katanga mines in the Congo, rephotographed underwater
About:
Katanga Bub brings together the extremes of the mobile device industry. It is based on a press image depicting the landscape and workers of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo—an area mined for minerals such as tungsten and coltan, essential for mobile device production. The press image has been rephotographed underwater and presented within a freestanding display unit. As water ripples and bubbles distort the scene beneath, the screens of multiple mobile devices display clearer details of the same Katanga mine view. This fusion of the earthy origins of mining and the liquefied luxury of global technology commodities explores the relationship between material extraction and digital information. The work highlights the dual narrative: while mobile devices disseminate knowledge and raise global awareness with the promise of a better world, the rare earth economy also supports problematic social and political infrastructures in Congo. It reveals the recursive links between matter and information, tracing the path from raw material to data generation.
Documentation:
Exhibition views from Trails Rising, Sandy Brown Gallery, Berlin; The Composing Rooms, London; and Treijac Project, France
The (s)Oil we Eat
Title: at Aral GmbH
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 241 × 112 × 51 cm
Materials: Earth from Naturpark Hoher Fläming; Aral BlueTronic SAE 10W-40; Sonax Xtreme Antifrost & Klarsicht Konzentrat Nano Pro; Ignite Vitamin Water; acrylic pipes; rubber corks; stainless steel; paint
Title: at Capbreton Beach
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 278 × 190 × 31 cm
Materials: Vinaigre aux herbes; huile d’olive; acrylic pipes; rubber corks; stainless steel; paint; beach sand; Styrofoam
Title: at Holiday Inn
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 318 × 100 × 31 cm
Materials: Purex laundry detergent; Comfort Lavender laundry softener; Cola Light; acrylic pipes; rubber corks; stainless steel; paint
Title: at Strani Venice
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 225 × 120 × 35 cm
Materials: Aperol Spritz; Chianti; Piatti detergenti; acrylic pipes; rubber cork; stainless steel; paint
Title: at Téte de Rigaud
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 98 × 58 × 30 cm
Materials: Soil; Styrofoam; beer lid; tiny metal stands
Copyright: Annde Vries
Timetables
Title: Timetables
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2011
Dimensions: Variable
Materials: Wood; metal; ceramic; digital photo prints on tables
About:
This piece features photographs taken from the clouds above Amsterdam in 2007.
Documentation:
Exhibition views from TruEye surView curated by Katja Novitskova, W139 in Amsterdam
Quantum Jelly” EDITIONS MEGO #152 (2012)
Quantum Jelly” EDITIONS MEGO #152 (2012)
Music by Lorenzo Senni
Artwork by Anne de Vries
Available via: Mego Records / Itunes / GooglePlay / emusic
LISTENING
Title: Listening, 01, 02, 03
Artist: Anne de Vries
Year: 2015
Dimensions: Variable
Materials: Mixed media; vinyl with UV print; stones coated in silicone; Polyurethane foam coated in silicone; steel; Kneed pox; acrylic hair
About:
Duo exhibition by Anne de Vries and Olga Balema at Michael Thibault gallery Los Angeles
DISimages
Image Exchange by Anne de Vries for DISimages
Eye Catchers
Title: Eye Catcher 03
Artist: Anne de Vries
Dimensions: Various
Materials: Coated steel; polished Plexiglass; real spiderwebs
Documentation:
On view at Twenty Thousand Years of Yarn, curated by Rubén Grilo, Future Gallery Berlin
