Isolated Normality

Inspired by a desire to manipulate the appearance of reality, Astrid Verhoef (b. 1973) creates photographs that recontextualise normality, moving the familiar into an unfamiliar landscape. Her practice examines humanity’s position in relation to manufactured and natural spaces. These themes find their expression in playful staging, placing individuals and objects in surprising settings. Questioning the boundaries between the real and the surreal, a profound interpretation of life emerges; it uses a new visual language in its reading of humankind’s place in the natural world. In Urbanite (2010-present), the subject, a city-dweller and office worker (often played by Verhoef herself) struggles amongst the elements in a desolate environment where a woman in stilettos falls into a lake and the simple computer mouse rises en masse against its user. Verhoef has exhibited work internationally, including at IJFFF Foto Film Festival and Photoville in New York. The photographs selected are part of the Urbanite series. www.astridverhoef.nl.