Cleo Veldman’s artistic creations revolve around the concept of character-building, a process where she gives life to her imaginative personas through the creating of masked costumes. She portrays them using various media, including video, installation, performance art and photography. Veldman draws inspiration from the interplay between identity and pop culture references, a language that forms a symbiotic relationship with society. Her work delves into the impact of pop culture portrayals on self-perception, leading to a distorted view of reality. In navigating this terrain, Veldman infuses her art with an uncanny sense of humor, which serves as a lens through which she examines the often strange situations that arise from this distorted worldview.

Growing up during the 2000s, Cleo found herself immersed in a media landscape predominantly influenced by male-driven narratives that caused a complex and, at times, negative connection to her own femininity. In her new work, “Dollface,” Cleo delves into the profound impact of portrayals of women on her personal perception of femininity. Exboot will be occupied by dolls and puppets of different sizes and shapes, accompanied by screens showing portrayals of these characters in the shape of dramatic documentary interviews. She presents an installation of new characters of several feminine personas, each reflecting facets of her own identity, in a quest to intimately get to know herself with these multifaceted aspects.

https://cleoveldman.com/
https://www.instagram.com/cleoveldman/