— Eulogy
2024 - ongoing
I Remember My First Cigarette (Papa), 2024 - Pigment Print, 70 x 50 cmLuck By Air Mail (Opa), 2024 - Pigment Print, 70 x 50 cm
Eulogy explores intergenerational and postcolonial trauma by using my family’s history as a lens through which to examine collective trauma and memory, revealing how these forces shape identity and emotional expression. The project finds its origin in a photograph published in the Bali Post, showing my grandfather being carried from his home in a body bag after his death in 2020.
Obituary no. 3, 2024 - UV Print on Ceramic, 7,5 x 15 cm
Obituary no. 6, 2024 - UV Print on Ceramic, 7,5 x 15 cm
My grandfather, born to an Indonesian woman and a Dutch soldier, lived a life shaped by the tensions and intersections of two cultures marked by colonization, war, and displacement. He often searched for details about his past, but never spoke openly about it with anyone, carrying a quiet longing to return to what he considered home. Through his story, his constant search for answers and his unspoken desire to reconnect with his roots, the project reflects on how these histories continue to affect personal and family narratives across generations.
I Mistook The Laughter For Love, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, 40 x 100 cm
This image became the catalyst for my research into the silences, losses, and unspoken memories that have shaped generations. By combining details from this photo with my family’s archive and my own photographic work, I interpret these themes using various media, including textiles, wood, ceramics, and AI techniques.
It Was Beautiful, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, 60 x 50 cm
Central to Eulogy is the idea of memory as constructed and selective, shaped by nostalgia, loss, and historical forces. I view AI as a form of collective memory, a source of visual material that supplements my family’s untold stories. The AI-generated images based on photos found in my family albums reflect stereotypical markers that are often exaggerated or warped, which I use to symbolize masculinity, trauma, and memory.
I Felt Very, Very Cold, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, 40 x 90 cm
By blending my own photography and archival material with AI-generated elements, I create new associations that underscore the constructed nature of memory, often anonymizing individuals through collages and crops. One key component of the project is the works created on plywood—pieces like I Mistook The Laughter For Love and I Felt Very, Very Cold—where AI-generated memories are UV-printed onto wooden panels and arranged as diptychs or triptychs.
Cadzand. 1983, 2024 - Excerpt of Video Work Cadzand. 1983, 2024 - Installation Overview
Handmade collages assembled from archival photos and letters layer fragments of memory to convey how history is not linear but complex and evolving. This collage process mirrors how inherited trauma is reassembled across generations, capturing the ways in which we reconstruct fragmented family histories. In one work, Cadzand. 1983, a handmade collage is processed through an AI algorithm, perpetually reshaping and distorting the image.
A Secret Feeling of Bliss, 2024 - AI generated image based on my family’s archives.
In early 2024, I traveled to Indonesia to visit places significant to my family’s past, deepening my understanding of the generational trauma that still resonates. One key moment of this journey was visiting the Banda Islands, where my great-grandmother was born and where Dutch colonial forces maintained a nutmeg monopoly. Here, the trauma of colonialism remains palpable, and the weight of history pervades the environment. During this trip, I found myself primarily photographing men—perhaps a subconscious way of connecting with my grandfather’s memory and grappling with his presence in a place so intertwined with our family’s painful history.
The Palette (Time), 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, Oil Paint
A recurring color palette, extracted from the photograph of my grandfather’s passing, unifies the works in Eulogy. This color scheme reappears in UV-printed archival photos on plywood, on which an oil-painted colored beam covers part of the image, creating a visual thread that links the pieces. By obscuring figures and details in the image, the work invites the viewer to consider how memory is both constructed and selective, shaped by nostalgia and loss. The contrast between family context and abstraction emphasizes the way we look at the past, both reconstructing and idealizing it while hiding its darker realities.
The Palette I (Bar Dancing), 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, Oil Paint, 30 x 20 cmThe Palette, 2024 - AI-generated colour palette based on the photo of my grandfather in a bodybag.
On the Obituary ceramic tiles, an element found in the photograph of my grandfather’s passing, I use UV-printing to transfer archival images selected from my family albums, which are then cropped to focus on specific details. The recurring color palette, inspired by the photograph, is hand-glazed onto each tile, creating a tactile experience that invites viewers to engage with the physicality of memory.
Obituary, 2024 - UV Print on Ceramic, 7,5 x 15 cm
Jacquard-woven tapestries derived from the photograph of my grandfather’s passing add another layer of meaning. By manipulating certain details while obscuring others, these tapestries reflect the selective nature of memory. Tapestry, a medium with historical ties to storytelling and cultural preservation, serves as a metaphor for how personal and collective histories are intricately interwoven over time.
Arrival On Run, 2024 - Jacquard Woven Tapestry, 176 x 124 cm
Eulogy is a reflection on how inherited trauma, postcolonial legacies, and generational silences shape identity and emotional expression. The family archive serves as a bridge to the past, grounding these abstract themes in lived, personal histories. Through the integration of archival materials, personal photography, AI-generated imagery, and tactile media, Eulogy reimagines how memory, identity, and history are constructed, preserved, and reinterpreted across generations.
The Ship (Andries), 2024 - Pigment Print, 70 x 340 cm
This project is generously supported by: