Rineke Dijkstra

(Born 1959, Sittard, The Netherlands)

This work is not currently on view.

Eygenya, Induction Center Tel Hashomer, Israel, March 6, 2003
Eygenya, North Court Base Pikud, Tzafon, Israel, December 9, 2003
Diptych: C print
Each: 49 5/8 x 42 1/8 inches (126 x 107 cm)
Edition 1 of 10
Gift of Sandra and Gerald S. Fineberg
2006.14

In 1998, Dijkstra began a series depicting young Israelis joining the army. In this diptych, the subject is pictured on the day she was inducted into the army and then eight months later in her uniform. We might expect her fatigues to dampen her individuality, yet even in an army uniform, the young woman’s personality shines through, as evidenced by her still-intact dark eyeliner, wispy bangs, and sure gaze. In 2001, the ICA organized an exhibition of Dijkstra’s photography and video, one of her first solo museum shows in the United States.

Almerisa, March 1994,
Almerisa, June 23, 1996
Almerisa, Feb. 21, 1998
Almerisa, Leidschendam, The Netherlands, March 19, 2000
Almerisa, Leidschendam, The Netherlands, Dec. 9, 2000
Almerisa, Leidschendam, The Netherlands, April 13, 2002
Almerisa, Leidschendam, The Netherlands, June 25, 2003
Almerisa, Leidschendam, The Netherlands, March 29, 2006
Each: C-print, 24-3/8 x 20-1/2 in. (62 x 52 cm) ed. 8/15
Extended loan from the collection of Sandra and Gerald S. Fineberg

During a project documenting refugees, six-year-old Almerisa, whose family fled Bosnia, asked Dijkstra to take her photo. Thus began Dijkstra’s serial project, tracing her subject’s transitions through both adolescence and relocation from East to West Europe.

This work is not currently on view. 

Odessa, Ukraine, August 11, 1993, 1993
C-print
59 x 49 5/8 in. (149.9 x 126 cm)
Edition 6 of 6
Promised gift of Beth and Anthony Terrana

Rineke Dijkstra has become well known for incisively direct photographic and video portraits of individuals in the midst of change, such as the diptych of an Israeli Army inductee already in the ICA collection. Odessa, Ukraine, August 11, 1993 faces us with a young boy in shorts and sandals clutching two unclothed dolls to his bare chest. The dolls’ pert plastic smiles and oversized bright eyes call attention to the boy’s comparatively vacant, stone-faced expression. Juxtaposing the childhood joy implied by the toys with a premature resignation glimpsed in her subject, Dijkstra hints at the fragility of hope, the fleetingness of youth, and an innocence soon to be lost.

This work is not currently on view. 

Dubrovnik, Croatia, July 13, 1996, 1996
C-print
13 ½ x 11 inches
Edition 3 of 15
Gift of Sandra and Gerald Fineberg

   Previous  Next