April 6 – 29 2018

MELK and Heavy Books are proud to present the exhibition Buffering with works by Erin M. Riley and Anouk Kruithof. The show is comprised of six of Riley’s hand-woven, hand dyed wool tapestries and two of Kruithof’s sculptures where she combines metal structures and images printed on PVC and vinyl.

Riley investigates the complexities of feminine identity today and how personal and public boundaries are blurred on the internet. Our understanding of sexuality is in transition and becoming increasingly conceptualised, and the digital era is resulting in a shift within our sexualised gaze. By combining two different worlds; the slow and ancient art form of weaving and digital snap shots from mobile phones and pornographic websites, Riley insist we take a step back and re-examine our understanding of our visually representation of the world.

Over the past years Anouk Kruithof has collected images related to issues like government surveillance, privacy, pollution and climate change from the Internet and on social media. They are later manipulated and translated to three-dimensional visual idioms that forms the series of sculptures titled Neutral consisting of metal structures and digital prints.

The prints are comprised of imagery taken from screenshots via the TSA’s (U.S Homeland Security) Instagram profile, notorious for displaying groups of confiscated items (mainly weapons) as content to be liked and commented upon. When initially documented by the TSA, identity cards of the contraband owners are part of the display; for privacy reasons, they are always blurred to the point where gender and race are no longer discernible. Kruithof has taken just the ID cards from these images and printed them on various plastics. The metal constructions, on which the prints rest, constitute the sculptural bodies of a new physical existence. This serves as a parallel to the original digital existence of images on Instagram accounts. The metal structures appear to have a de-humanized emotionality equal to the abstracted imagery added to them.

Erin M. Riley (born 1985) is a Brooklyn-based artist that holds her MFA in fibers from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She has exhibited her works extensively in the U.S at places like Art Basel Miami, Hashimoto Contemporary, Brilliant Champions. Joshua Liner Gallery, P.P.O.W Gallery, The Armory Show, Frieze London and Boston Center for the Arts.

Anouk Kruithof (born 1981) is a Dutch artist working in Mexico City. Her multilayered, interdisciplinary approach encompasses photography, sculpture, installation, artist-books, text, performance, video, animation, websites and interventions in the public domain.
She as been exhibited internationally at institutions such as: Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Stedelijk Museum, FOAM, The Xiangning Art Museum and International Center of Photography (ICP).