Renée van Oploo
Fine artist & researcher
info@reneevanoploo.nl
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INSTALLATIONS & ART
RESARCH, WORKSHOPS & WRITINGS
ANIMATED PROJECTS
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works may be for sale
BIO
As a visual artist I bring together practice and reflection, using installations, essays, workshops and collaborative projects to question how art might create space for shared experience and ethical thought. Alongside my practice I teach at St. Joost School of Art & Design and conduct research at the Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT), and I work collectively as part of YAFF.
Projects (selection)
Pan Colon(s)
Ceramics, various dimensions
(2025)
With Pan Colon(s) I seek a personal, experimental reflection on a specific part of the body: the colon. This organ marks the final stage where everything the body has absorbed leaves as waste. It is an organ we feel; it can cramp, rumble, behave unpredictably, or fall ill.
View project
Bottles
Porcelain, various bottle like size
(2025)
In a world where we are constantly yearning for the next big thing, we
are tempted into self-numbing. The porcelain bottles symbolise these
addictions: for some it is alcohol, for others work, and for yet others
running.
View project
Thinking Landscape #2
Little Flake, Little Hair, Little Booger
Ceramics, wood, steel, fans, electronics, vacuum bags, LED lighting, dog
hair, sand, wisdom teeth, cushion stuffing, 3D animation, robot vacuum,
screen.
(2024)
The installation emerged from a personal experience: when discarding my very first
vacuum cleaner, I realised it had collected dust particles from everyone I
cared for. This raised a broader philosophical question: when does something
that was once part of us become considered dirty?
View project
A Moral Anatomy of an Artichoke
Ecological cotton, cotton thread, fillings
(2022)
For A
Moral Anatomy of an Artichoke, I translated a theoretical concept,
hospitality, into visual metaphors. This quilt is based on a self-authored
essay and serves as a symbolic representation of the moral dilemmas discussed
therein. The work centres on the question: what role does the human play in
welcoming the other?
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Living Statistics #7
Fixed Fiction
Mixed media
(2022)
On what
principles do we build a society? This project presents research into the
influence that the ethical ambitions of the urban environment have on its
inhabitants. Specialists, urban planners, and residents of Zoetermeer were
invited to contribute and reflect on what we truly desire to feel at home.
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Border of Europe.
1:5000, 864 grams
Ecological cotton
(2021)
The border is embroidered on 12 metres of fabric. At a scale of 1:5000,
the outline of Europe measures roughly 53,000 kilometres. While
embroidering the border I reflected on what this line represents. It
marks two sides, but does it truly divide a person? In this work all
countries are joined together.
View project
The Blame Gam
Who’s to Blame?!
Board
game, table, chairs
(2020)
Global climate change is an increasingly significant factor in our lives. Glaciers are shrinking, animal species face extinction, and ever more violent storms rage across land and sea. But who is responsible? In this game, multiple perspectives are brought together to explore these abstract questions. Your task is to solve the question, “Who’s to blame?!”, within the fictional Blame.inc office.
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Fundament & Thinking landscape #1
Corten
steel and steel, workshop
(2020)
This
artwork is inspired by the transformation and spatial development of a natural
area near Vessem. In this process, the river has been restored to a meandering
course after being straightened since the 1970s due to intensive agriculture,
which disrupted the natural landscape. The Fundament represents human
impact on the landscape.
View project
I am water
Acrylic one, LED screen, salt, 3D animation, soundscape, ceramics, glaze, gold lustre, stones
(2018)
I
am Water consists of multiple
works, including a 3D animation of a flowing river — a metaphor for the
continuous flow of money and value. Inspired by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), it
symbolises how we are swept along by intangible structures, ranging from
financial systems to technological progress.
View project
Song for the earth
A
three-part a cappella performance. acrylic one, Arduino
and speakers.
(2018)
For
this installation, I composed a song that was performed during the exhibition
opening by three men dressed in costumes inspired by a still from a 3D
animation, A State of Nature. In the song, humanity offers an apology
for taking nature for granted, viewing it solely as a resource for human use.
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Salt of the earth
3D-animtion, soundscape, salt
(2017)
The Salt of the Earth I invite visitors into a layered reflection on human existence, set within the symbolic space of the Vrije Katholieke Kerk. Drawing on the theme of Arnhem’s Open Monument Day, “Boeren, Burgers en Buitenlui”, the installation weaves together salt, sound and moving image to question who we are within today’s society and how we find our place in the larger whole.
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Art Is Our Only Hope
LED-schermen, zout, 3D-animatie, soundscape, keramiek, glazuur, goudluster, stenen, cortenstaal, staal, EPS, acrylic one.
(2017)
How
do we learn to live with technological progress while our bodies remain bound
to mortality? My work is a philosophical-essayistic expression of a longing for
nature, but also of the irreversible technological conditions that humanity
faces. The installation is a personal quest to find my place on this earth.
View project
© Renée van Oploo 2025