Sander Coers (NL, b. 1997) is an artist working with photography based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. At the borders of documentary and fiction, he seeks to establish new perspectives on masculinity by visualising, recontextualising and (de)constructing memories. Coming-of-age transitions form a recurring theme throughout his work: Coers frequently casts a tender gaze on stories of love, friendship and self-discovery drawn from his family, friends, and peers.
POST (2023–2024) explores the intersection of constructed memories and perceptions of masculinity in visual culture through the use of AI-generated imagery.
“With this project, I aim to investigate the role of photography in shaping our perceptions of the past and question its authenticity in the age of digitalism where memories can be constructed and manipulated.”
“As a child, I spent hours immersed in my grandparents’ photo albums, fascinated by the details in each picture. I longed to connect with the people captured in the images, and to glimpse into my grandfather’s past. In those albums, I discovered a part of my heritage tied to my grandfather’s birth in Indonesia during World War II. But there was a silence surrounding the past, making it difficult to grasp the full story.”
“To bridge that gap, I decided to train an AI bot to expand my family history based on my grandparents’ photo albums, dating from the 1940s to the 1990s. Though entirely fictitious, these AI-generated images evoke similar elements found in my grandparents’ albums – landscapes, clothing, and colours from that time.”
“The photos are UV-printed on plywood, which is often used in construction – a stereotypically masculine domain. By printing images on this material, I create a physical representation of the constructed memories that we hold onto; the images become tangible objects that reflect the fragility of our memories and the impact they have on our present.”
