Sander Coers



Projects
Eulogy
— POST
— Blue Mood (Al Mar)
— Come Home

Commissioned Work

Information
CV 






Sander Coers is an artist based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 



©2024



— Eulogy
 

2024 - ongoing


The Ship (Andries), 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, 70 x 340 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 across generations. The project began with a powerful photograph published in the Bali Post, showing my grandfather being carried from his home in a body bag. This image became the catalyst for my research into the silences, losses, and unspoken memories that have shaped generations of my family.

I Remember My First Cigarette (Papa), 2024 - Digital C-Print, 70 x 50 cm
Luck By Air Mail (Opa), 2024 - Digital C-Print, 70 x 50 cm


At the heart of the project is my family’s archive, a collection of photographs, letters, documents, and objects that shape these fragmented histories. For instance, a 1948 boarding pass marks my grandfather’s migration from Indonesia to the Netherlands during the Indonesian Revolution and the post-World War II upheaval. This moment of displacement is underscored by a photograph of their arrival in Rotterdam, capturing the trauma of settling in a foreign land where they encountered racism and alienation. Through these relics, I explore how personal histories are interwoven with collective trauma.

I Mistook The Laughter For Love, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, 40 x 100 cm 


To interpret these themes, I use various media, including photography, textiles, wood, ceramics, and AI techniques. 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. The tactile nature of the wood contrasts with the abstraction of the AI-generated imagery, creating an evocative interplay between the physical and the digital.

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. 

Arrival on Run, 2024 - Jacquard Woven Tapestry, 176 x 124 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.

Obituary, 2024 - UV Print on Ceramics, 7,5 x 15 cm 


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 reflect stereotypical markers that are often exaggerated or warped, which I use to symbolize masculinity, trauma, and memory. 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.

The Palette I (Bar Dancing), 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, Oil Paint, 30 x 20 cm
The Palette, 2024 - AI-generated colour palette based on the photo of my grandfather in a bodybag. 


A recurring color palette, extracted from the photograph of my grandfather’s passing, unifies the works in Eulogy. This color reappears in UV-printed archival photos on ceramic tiles and in oil paint on UV-printed plywood, creating a visual thread that links the pieces. Derived from a moment of trauma, this color palette brings an emotional resonance, connecting the project’s diverse materials and evoking the layered nature of memory.

I Felt Very, Very Cold, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, 40 x 90 cm 


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 remnants of history still linger in the landscape. 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 history.

Jalan Sam Ratulangi, 2024 
The Site, 2024 


Eulogy is both an exploration and an expression—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.

If you want to read, see or hear more about this project, please click this link to request additional material.

It Was Beautiful, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, 60 x 50 cm