Ryan Van Der Hout Dark Waters
Dark Waters is a series of images of water, clouds, and trees that look at humanity’s hand in commodifying and altering nature. Using a laser cutter, Van Der Hout burns holes into the photograph, pushing to see how far he can destroy the physical structure before it falls apart—a metaphor for incursions into nature. The gold background seen through the holes denotes the value that natural resources have, revealed through the destruction of the image.
Winner of the 2018 RMG Exposed Prize.
Ryan Van Der Hout
Toronto-based artist Ryan Van Der Hout’s work has been widely featured in publications including The Huffington Post, Vogue Italia, CBC, and Reader’s Digest. He has exhibited across Canada, the United Kingdom, and New York, and most notably in the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Collectors Series; as part of a Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Featured Exhibition; and in The Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward festival. Van Der Hout has created public art for the Toronto Archives, The TTC, Nuit Blanche, and Pemberton Developments; was awarded the Emerging Artist Award by the Robert McLaughlin Gallery; and has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Ryerson University.