olivia d’cruz

2021                                           

The Spectators is an installation and animation featuring the Slingertuin, a care farm where animals play a role in the healing of people. This farm, like many others in the province of Groningen, has been damaged by earthquakes, caused by decades of gas mining. While filming the animals, I noticed one inquisitive guineafowl was keeping an eye on me and Niels, the goose, shimmied and screeched at me regularly. They reminded me that I am also a predator and an intruder along with an artist, human etc.

I was invited to by Museum Villa Mondriaan to respond to one of Piet Mondriaan’s early paintings, Boerderij 1895. The work was part of the exhibition Jong en Veelbelovend at Museum Villa Mondriaan in Winterswijk in 2021.

2021                                           

Het Vogelnest was a walk-in workshop developed for children at Cinekid festival 2021. The participants and their parents transformed into our beloved city birds, the ooievaar, duif, meerkoet, and eend, among others. They were invited to interview each other about life in the city. Topics ranged from poop to politics to pancakeships.

Project with Cinekid festival

2020                                            

‘Beestje Bouwen’ was a five day workshop with children at The Refugee Centre, Emmen. After imagining an underwater world, each one designed and built their own ‘onderwater beestje’ stop-motion puppet and brought them to life. We imagined how the ‘beestjes’ would interact with each other and recorded the possible sounds they would make.  Here is the mysterious little underwater community we created. 

Project with Stichting Vrolijkheid.

Watch the full animation here
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2020                                            

Based on the ideas of Bruno Latour, Speaker for the deaf , a collaboration between philosophers, biologists and artists, urges us to include more-than-human voices in political exchange. 
Questions asked by The Parliament of Things: "What does the political voice of a crab, an eel or a porpoise sound like? How can non-humans best be represented in our democracy?...”

These ceramic sculptures depict the hearing systems of real and imagined creatures of the North Sea. Each sculpture is coupled with a fictional eulogy and a soundscape.
Speaker for the deaf was the winner of the Parliament of Things Design Competition 2020 and was on display at Nemo Science Museum, Amsterdam in November 2020.

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