The very particular imagery of Ellen Kooi has numerous origins. First of all, the predilection for the setting is undoubtedly coming from the theatre, where she first started as a photograph.
It’s an obvious inspiration source for her compositions and actually she precedes these ones by sketches, and, as a director, uses her models like real actors. The spectator is often confronted at figures in incongruous positions / actions that she establishes in an urban environment or incredible landscapes, like those six women standing in an arc of circle fishing on a quay of the end of the world (Amersfoort – Visvrouwen, 1998) or else this lady calling an improbable interlocutor in front of a sewer (Haarlem – het putje, 1999).
With these settings in situations a bit extravagants, we can as well see her work as close to the surrealistic world. This leaning for absurdity and humour makes an echo with works of several dutch artists such as those, for example, of Teun Hocks, which is located straight in this movement.
