Wouldn’t they be amazing?

Especially for the exhibition CUTE at Kunsthal Rotterdam (4 July – 23 November 2025), Dana Dijkgraaf created the video work Wouldn’t They Be Amazing?. Soft, surreal creatures with large, gleaming eyes and coats that seem to invite touch appear in a continuously shifting sequence on the screen.

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Artist

Dana Dijkgraaf

Curator Tentoonstelling CUTE

Charlotte Martens

One cuter than the next. They gaze back at you—curious, open, sometimes almost human—inviting moments of recognition and wonder. In the process of making, a surreal world has taken shape: a place where fantasies are free to exist. Separate from our own, yet strangely familiar—as if dreams had briefly become tangible. Could such a world ever truly be created, where this surreal cuteness comes to life? Would we even want that? Or will these beings remain forever in the digital realm—avatars of our imagination? Wouldn’t They Be Amazing? was conceived for the exhibition CUTE, born from a search into the many faces of “cuteness”.

What did we make?
The video presents a series of whimsical fantasy creatures inhabiting dreamlike landscapes. The imagery is framed within a pastel-colored world: eyes that meet your gaze, glitter that shimmers, and soft pastel hair that seems to invite your touch.

Sparkles
Wouldn’t They Be Amazing? is shown at Kunsthal Rotterdam during the group exhibition CUTE (July–November 2025), and received praise in the press, including a 4-star review in De Volkskrant by Lisa Bouyeure. The project is exhibited together with Happy Encounters.

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