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Esther van der Heijden

I am a multi-media artist, visual researcher and educator.  

My practice entails filmmaking, artistic research, costume design, ceramic experimentation, and writing.
In my work I aim to combine my investigative and critical attitude with playfulness and experimentation.

I am fascinated by oceanic ecosystems, oceanic evolution and storytelling in relation to the oceanic/aquatic. I am interested in the role of critical oceanic fiction, weird fiction and folktales which aim to unpack and research current climatic and political crises at sea. 

esther-heyden@hotmail.com
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Esther van der Heijden


I am a multi-media artist, visual researcher, filmmaker and educator.  

My practice entails artistic research, costume design, ceramic experimentation, and writing. In my work I aim to combine my investigative and critical attitude with playfulness and experimentation.

Email
Instagram

Living Monuments of The Deep

In collaboration with Dutch photographer Nosh Neneh.
Sounddesign by Danny van der Lugt.

Living Monuments of the Deep is a multimedia project consisting of a photo-series and film. In the project, absurd and hybrid creatures transcend divisions between humans and animals, inviting us to re-evaluate our connection with species on the edge of extinction. Through sculptural and monumental costumes, the project pays homage to endangered oceanic species facing diverse threats to their existence. These creatures - marked as endangered on the IUCN Red List - play key roles in the ocean’s chemistry and ecosystems, which emphasizes the urgency of their preservation.

Exhibited at:
- The New Current, BRUTUS, Art Rotterdam, 2024
- Coolsingel projection, Art Rotterdam x IFFR, 2024
- Atari, No Man’s Art Gallery, 2023
- Moon Gallery, 2023


Exhibition view - The New Current, BRUTUS, Art Rotterdam 2024

"Transitions: Navigating Humanity in a Shifting Reality"


Exhibition view - The New Current, Coolsingel, Art Rotterdam x IFFR 2024



stills










photo-series

Along the Troubled Current, 2021


Graduation MA Non-Linear Narrative
Royal Academy of Art The Hague  
- 1 channel, 4k, 15.34 minutes
- experimental film including theater and performance, ceramics and costume design.

This short experimental film communicates a tale about a pteropod, a planktonic snail: The Great Drifter, The Shape Shifter. Pteropods are sensitive indicators of ocean acidification and high CO2 levels; their shell thickness gives us information about their resilience in the past and future. Pteropods play important roles in carbon fluxes in the open ocean, calcifying up to 89 precent of its waters. An embodied study of the rapid and forced evolution of pteropods symbolizes what it takes to evolve, and questions how we relate to those having to adapt.

This bio-political tale invites the viewer into a close study of an oceanic creature to think through how climatic change is being lived. Through different characters, the narrator weaves together a broader context of oceanic injustices. How do vulnerability and elasticity come together when a hostile environment forces one change?