Uprooted

outlines an ecological worldview beyond human dominance, centred on coexistence with plants and animals, shared intelligence and undeniable interdependency.

2023-ongoing
multi chapter project consisting of videos, sculptures, animations and various installations, 07:21 min. looped, HD projection
Edition of 5
Available with English subtitles (standard), Japanese, as well as Dutch subtitles. Other languages per special request.
The first edition of Uprooted was co-commissioned by the Yokohama Triennial, Japan, Mondriaan Fund in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, The Royal Dutch Embassy in Tokyo, Japan in 2023.
Forthcoming:
2026, Duo, See Our Vision Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2026, Solo, Art Duesseldorf, Germany, with Durst Britt Mayhew
2026, Group, BredaPhoto Biennale, Breda, Netherlands
Past:
2025 - 2026, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), Amsterdam, Netherlands
2025, C5CNM, Beijing, China
2025, 6th Beijing Film Academy International New Media Art Triennale, China
2024, Artissima Art Fair, Turin, Italy, with Durst Britt Mayhew
2023, Yokohama Triennial, Japan

Uprooted is set amidst a vibrant sculptural and site-specific installation bringing together various techniques such as performance, hand drawn animation, lyrical narration and musical composition. The film outlines a worldview where human dominance is abandoned in favour of harmonious co-existence with plants and animals, where we trust their intelligence as much as our own and acknowledges interdependency. Its main protagonist falls into her own rabbit hole and becomes part of the birthing ritual of a new world.
The ongoing project grew out Verkade’s profound experience of post-partum, like a never-ending psychedelic trip altering reality as we know it. Since 2023 the project has grown its so-called extrusions, in the shape of mixed media sculptures, an inflatable cinema, drawings and animations (and more to come).

Verkade’s artistic practice is well-known for blending personal stories with big-picture ideas, mixing digital techniques withhandmade craftsmanship, and exploring societal issues across emotional landscapes.

For Uprooted she has taken a similar path by exploring her own experience of recently becoming a mother and the uncertainties of raising a child in a world facing social and environmental crises. Moving beyond guilt tripping and taking a sensitive approach, she follows the philosophical and sympathetic understanding that we cannot separate ourselves from nature or from other animals, but must re-imagine and maintain our symbiotic relationship to all life. She urges us to rethink our relationship with the natural world around us and how we can better care for it.