— Summer Came Eventually
2026 - ongoing
In this work, Sander Coers explores how family memory is shaped as much by what remains unspoken as by what is remembered. Departing from his archive of family and holiday photographs, he approaches images not as fixed records, but as unstable constructions that shift over time.
At the core of the project lies an attempt to reconstruct fragments of his childhood in order to come to terms with a rupture in his family. Rather than addressing this experience directly, Coers revisits these memories through processes of translation and transformation. Using artificial intelligence, he prompts a system to describe these archival photographs, rewrites these descriptions, and feeds them back into the model. With each iteration, the images drift further from their source: figures dissolve, gestures become uncertain, and scenes lose their coherence. What emerges are fragments that feel intimate, yet remain difficult to fully grasp.
This process reflects a broader condition in which emotional experiences, particularly within male identity, often remain unprocessed and unspoken. Growing up without a language for vulnerability, moments of trauma are frequently absorbed into a surface of normalcy. Family structures, as well as photography itself, tend to reinforce this coherence, presenting stable narratives that obscure underlying tensions. By destabilizing these images, Coers exposes the gap between what is lived and what can be articulated.
Material plays a central role in this exploration. The images are translated into tactile forms such as tapestry and UV-printed plywood, combined with oil paint. In addition, Coers incorporates repurposed domestic objects - chairs, tables, and decorative elements - drawn from the context of the home. These materials function not as neutral supports, but as carriers of memory and atmosphere, embedding the work within a physical space that echoes the domestic environment in which these experiences unfolded.
By combining digital processes with material interventions, the work reflects on how technology reshapes the ways we construct memory, intimacy, and care. The resulting installations exist between presence and absence, where personal history expands into a shared condition of silence, vulnerability, and continuous reconstruction.
The Palette (Window Seat), 2026 - UV print on plywood, oil paint, 40 x 53 cm
Installation view at Prospects 2026. From left to right: The Bather no. 03, Summer Came Eventually, Intensive Care (Pietà), 2026. Photo: Tommy SmitsThe Palette (Boyhood), 2026 - UV print on plywood, oil paint, 60 x 40 cmThe Palette (Glow in The Dark), 2026 - UV print on plywood, oil paint, 40 x 30 cm