Where to go from here?

Noor Boiten works as a conceptual visual artist mainly with mixed-media video installations, consisting of sculpture, photography, film, text and 3D animation. Boiten delves into media theory and feminist philosophy in their work and researches the relationship between gender and digital culture. In addition, Boiten plays with the properties and possibilities of various unusual image carriers within their photographic work.

Countless paving stones are spread out beneath our feet. When a cluster of stones is full of cracks, they seem to want to resist the function they are supposed to fulfill; carrying the daily burden of thousands of anonymous feet. What happens when these materials are taken out of their daily context and allowed to fulfill another function? Do they then transform into autonomous, self-contained art objects, as carriers of photographic material, instead of the daily passer-by?

In the context of their work, Boiten associates construction materials with resources and building blocks that are prepared to become part of something new, as a metaphor for (self)transformation. In Utrecht, where Boiten grew up, and Rotterdam, the city where they now live, it does not feel as if construction actually leads to renewal. Roads are asphalted and cracks in that asphalt are filled with so-called bitumen. Newly built houses consist of hundreds of thousands of identical bricks, filled with countless identical living rooms, bathrooms and kitchens. Uniformity and homogeneity are tangible and visible as a normalized (urban) ideal.

Boiten’s research into the theme of gender clashes with this homogeneous ideal. Just like the cracked paving stones and the cracks in the asphalt, the concept of gender cannot be placed in homogeneous and/or heteronormative frameworks. In this spatial installation, Boiten experiments with removing building materials from their normal context. By placing them as image-bearing characters in a story, Boiten constructs, using photographic archive material, a story about autonomous transformation and resistance to uniformity.

Noor Boiten (1999) graduated in 2023 from St. Joost School of Art & Design in Breda in the direction of Photography, Film & the Digital. Since then, Boiten has exhibited in various places, including the Nederlands Fotomuseum, WORM and Queer Film Festival Utrecht. Boiten is currently showing their new work 'The future is under construction' as a solo exhibition in Museum Hilversum. https://noorboiten.com