Verena Blok
Still from ‘Robota’ (2018)
Verena Blok (NL/PL, 1990)
As a visual artist, I have a deep interest in personal histories and narrative storytelling. Intrigued by the way cultural and political factors influence one’s life, I use my lens-based practice to shed light on inner life and everyday “reality” in intimate settings. The encounter with my subject is the core of and the fuel for my work. To a large extent, my work is driven by the complex, paradoxical, tragic, and sometimes humorous set of social and cultural relations that form everyday life, mostly in Eastern Europe. Themes that recur in my work are reflective of the strife among the contested, and often clashing discourses about identity, migration, gender, representation, and history.
Central to my research at KAMEN is the construction of deeply embedded cultural ideas of femininity which mirror and reproduce religious images of womanhood.
This project and the residency program is financed by Art Center Stroom Den Haag, Netherlands.