Reimagining the terraqueous: ecocritical art and its perspectives on the Dutch coast
This dissertation examines how contemporary artists ecocritically engage with and reimagine the Dutch coast through the concept of the terraqueous: the entanglement of land (terra) and sea (aqua). Through a series of case studies, it investigates how artistic practices represent, question, and reimagine dominant narratives about human relations with the sea. I show how ecocritical art can make ecological entanglements materially tangible and politically thinkable.
The dissertation is structured in two parts. Part I examines how artists critically reconsider the historically prominent Dutch narrative of the “battle against the sea.” Through analyses of artworks by Astrid Nobel, Robert Smithson, Vibeke Mascini, RAAAF, and Tanja Engelberts, the dissertation explores themes including coastal care, environmental data, industrial extraction, heritage, uncertainty, and decay. These chapters show how artistic practices shift attention from technological hubris toward ecological entanglements, while combining critique with awe for nature. Part II focuses on participatory and performative artistic practices in the Wadden Sea. Through studies of Han Jansen’s Waddenprojects (1979-1981) and De Onkruidenier’s Relearning Aquatic Evolution (2022), the dissertation examines how embodied, multisensory, and collective experiences foster ecological awareness and challenge static understandings of the coastline. The linear, static ideas about the coastline are easily reimagined as fluid in landscapes where the daily tidal movements are so omnipresent.
The artistic practices are studied through the lens of Actor Network Theory, combining archival research, and artist interviews. Additionally, to study multi-sensorial experiences of performance art, I have used autoethnographical methods and have conducted participant interviews. The result provides insight into the myriad of idiosyncratic artistic practices and how these cultivate situated understandings of uncertainty, interdependence, and collectivity.