In Cruelearthure, a severed body lies between human, creature, and tree. Reaching outward as if calling for help, the work reflects on vulnerability, violence, and the harm humans inflict on one another and on the living world
Cruelearthure presents a body at the point where human, creature, and earth seem to collapse into one another. Lying on the floor and cut in half, the figure is at once bodily and vegetal: a human form severed like a felled tree. The red surface, the colour of blood, made from textiles and wax, evokes exposed flesh and intensifies the sense of bodily rupture.
De vertakkende ledematen strekken zich naar buiten in een gebaar waarin reiken, verzet en roepen samenkomen. De doorgesneden romp en het blootliggende rood roepen beelden op van conflict, verwonding en menselijk lijden. De plaatsing op de vloer versterkt de kwetsbaarheid van de figuur.
Language is central to the work, and the title Cruelearthure reflects this. Formed from cruel, earth and creature, the constructed word points to the ways humans inflict harm on one another and on the world they inhabit. Wordplay is a consistent part of van den Berg’s practice, allowing language to carry the same tensions and ruptures present in her sculptural forms.
