After studying photography, Sander Coers (1997) began experimenting with different ways of creating and presenting images. Through his practice, he explores how memory functions. As a starting point, he often uses holiday and family photographs, which he reinterprets and manipulates.
For his work at Prospects, Coers used artificial intelligence to reinterpret images of the family he grew up in. He prompted an AI program to describe family photographs, then edited the generated texts so that the program would alter the images based on these revised descriptions. For Coers, working with artificial intelligence is a way of manipulating and abstracting his family photographs to such an extent that they acquire an expressive power that transcends his personal memories. The outcome of this dialogue between the artist and artificial intelligence is enigmatic and slightly unsettling. The works show fragments of memories from family albums. The colours that lie like a veil over the images lend them a dreamlike atmosphere. They are phantom images of memories that were captured yet never existed in this way.
Coers often chooses striking supports on which to print his images, such as ceramic tiles, a carpet or a folding screen. These materials frequently reference the material culture and traditions of Southeast Asia, which are connected to his own family history.
Text: Sarah van Binsbergen