The beachcomber on Ameland pointed out to Maria the changing landscape on the island. Dunes move and sand is sprayed on them. On one side of the island, the starnd disappears while on the other side it grows. In the work ‘Dunes’, Maria examines this moving sand through a video installation. The videos show images of the beach, in the foreground is Maria herself. Slowly she becomes covered on one side by the sand while her other side remains light and uncovered in the lee. Slowly, Maria turns into a dune: she “verduint”.

Maria Stuut obtained her Master’s degree in Autonomous Design (Fine arts) at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, KASK, in Ghent, Belgium 2021-2023. In her graduation work, Maria represents the human species and explores different kinds of relationships in an ecosystem, without romanticising them. The artificial separation between humans and ecology and man’s need to control their environment play an important role in this. She looks at these themes through the small, the everyday and the silly. As an anti-hero, Maria undertakes futile attempts to interact with other species and landscapes, by entering into an impossible symbiosis with a plant or by becoming like a dune.