— Eulogy
2024 - ongoing
I Mistook The Laughter For Love, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, Acrylic Frame, 40 x 100 x 3,6 cm (three panels)
It all started with a photograph. In 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, my grandfather passed away from a heart attack in his home in Indonesia. A photograph capturing the moment he was carried from his home in a body bag was published in the Bali Post. Seeing that image felt surreal, almost like an intrusion into something so deeply personal. Yet, it became a catalyst for me.
Obituary no. 3, 2024 - UV Print on Ceramic, 7,5 x 15 x 1 cm
Obituary no. 6, 2024 - UV Print on Ceramic, 7,5 x 15 x 1 cm
This led to the creation of Eulogy, an intimate and multi-layered project that delves into the quiet, complex legacies of family, migration, and memory. It was a starting point to explore the silences, losses, and unspoken histories that have shaped families for generations.
It’s Really Happening, 2025 - UV Print on Plywood, 20 x 30 x 1.8 cm (two panels)
My grandfather was born to an Indonesian mother and a Dutch soldier—caught between two cultures marked by colonialism, war, and displacement. While he spent much of his life searching for clues about his origins, he rarely spoke of what he found. That silence carried weight. I began digging into my family’s archive, pulling together old photographs, letters, and objects, and combining them with my own photographic work. From there, I expanded outward, incorporating textiles, wood, ceramics, and AI-generated imagery to explore how history and memory are reconstructed, fragmented, and at times erased.
Wallpapers (Shirts & Flowers), 2025
In Eulogy, I pick up the unanswered questions, weaving together family photographs, objects, textiles, ceramics, and AI-generated images to reflect on what’s been lost—and what could be pieced back together. What begins as a personal story quickly unfurls into something far wider: a portrait of generational silence and the lingering shadows of colonial history.
The Gathering, 2025 - UV Print on Ceramic, 7,5 x 15 x 1 cm
Photography sits at the heart of the work, but it’s the interplay between materials that allows me to explore the emotional textures of loss. During a trip to Indonesia, I became fascinated by the way objects hold stories. They carry history in a way that feels tactile and physical. That idea became central to Eulogy. Ceramic tiles are UV-printed with family photos and hand-glazed in a color palette inspired by the Bali Post photograph of my grandfather. I’m not just telling one story; I’m creating layers, allowing the viewer to experience memory the way it actually exists: fragmented, fluid, and tied to emotion.
The Yellow, 2024 - AI-generated imageA Secret Feeling Of Bliss, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, 20 x 30 x 1,8 cm (two panels)
I also incorporate AI, using family photographs to generate new visuals that are warped and ghostly. AI fascinates me because it mimics the way memory works. It exaggerates certain features, blurs others—like looking at a dream of a memory rather than the memory itself. For me, the technology represents a form of collective memory, shaped by wider datasets and cultural bias. Even when it generates something ‘new,’ it’s still shaped by existing perceptions of history and identity.
I Felt Very, Very Cold, 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, Acrylic Frame, 40 x 90 x 3,6 cm
A video work within Eulogy takes these ideas further. I used an algorithm made for web design, feeding it cut-up images of old family photos to create a rippling, morphing visual that never settles. It reflects the way memories fade and take on new shapes depending on who is remembering them. The visual is warm and abstract, evoking a familiar sense of remembering and forgetting.
Cadzand. 1983, 2024 - Excerpt of Video Work Cadzand. 1983, 2024 - Installation Overview
While this work deals with loss and trauma, I didn’t set out with those exact themes in mind. At first, it was about filling in the gaps, but then the process was unexpectedly healing. My grandmother, my father, and my relatives started sharing stories that I had never heard before. Even though some of these histories were painful, bringing them into the open made them feel less heavy. The displacement, loss, and silences I explore in Eulogy aren’t unique to my grandfather’s story; they’re woven into so many postcolonial histories.
The Palette I (Bar Dancing), 2024 - UV Print on Plywood, Oil Paint, 30 x 20 cm
This project is generously supported by: