In the RAINBOW series, I investigate how major historical events become embedded in collective visual memory. Using imagery connected to the Second World War, I combine archival photographs with images from my own family archive to create large-scale painted collages.
The works are constructed from fragmented photographs that together form portraits and layered compositions. Historical documentation and personal memory become inseparable, merging collective history with intimate family narratives. Through this process, the paintings explore how large-scale historical events continue to shape personal identity across generations.
The RAINBOW series is composed of multiple subseries, each consisting of seven paintings that explore the tonal range of a single color. No black paint is used; instead, the works are built from the darkest and lightest tonal variations within each specific color. This creates an atmosphere that is both vivid and unsettling, balancing recognition with estrangement.
The title RAINBOW refers to the biblical symbol of promise and survival after catastrophe. Within the context of the works, this symbol becomes ambiguous, existing alongside imagery connected to war, loss, and inherited trauma.
My interest in this subject developed while living and working for several years in the former headquarters of the Dutch National Socialist Movement (NSB) in Utrecht. That historically charged environment led me to investigate my own German family history, where stories of perpetrators and resistance existed side by side.
Rather than offering judgment, the series reflects on the complexity of historical memory and the ordinary human lives that exist within systems of violence. RAINBOW examines how images from both public and private archives continue to influence the way we perceive history, identity, and morality today.
