About

Ilja Simons is a visual artist based in the Netherlands. Working primarily with collage, her practice examines how ideals of femininity are constructed, repeated, and arranged within visual culture.

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Practice

Simons works with both analogue and digital collage, combining archival imagery, found materials, and pressed botanical elements. Her approach emphasises materiality, layering, and the visible traces of time and handling. 

Earlier work used botanical elements to examine themes of preservation and transformation.

More recent work has shifted toward an exploration of the construction of femininity. Across different series, Simons examines how femininity is constructed through posing, decoration, and visual framing. Drawing on vintage photographic material and archival imagery, her works trace the subtle processes through which bodies are softened, styled, and made to appear natural, while remaining deeply structured by cultural expectations.

Her recent series Potpourri, Rehearsing the Ideal, and Unposed each approach this inquiry from a different angle. Together, they form an ongoing investigation into how the female body becomes an image: adorned, disciplined, rehearsed, or interrupted.

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Exhibitions

Simons’ work has been exhibited internationally under the pseudonym dodsicle. Recent exhibitions include UNDERGROUND VI at ArtBees Gallery, Paris (2025), where she presented Daisy; a group exhibition during NFT Tokyo, Tokyo (2024); the Digital Art New Year Exhibition at NEAL Digital Gallery, China (2022), featuring Tree of Life; and a FIFA World Cup group exhibition at the ITHRA Museum, Saudi Arabia (2022), which is now in the permanent collection of the museum.

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