Sarah van Sonsbeeck: We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now

What connects the history of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam with the topical question of migration? This question inspired artist Sarah van Sonsbeeck to consider how the Oude Kerk is interwoven with the ocean. In times gone by the church was one of the few public, covered places where sails and nets could be mended, and a place where naval heroes were buried. The barrel vaulting was also fabricated like the inverted hull of a ship using shipbuilding techniques. And it is not for nothing that the main section of the church is traditionally known in Dutch as the ‘schip’, or nave. In the church there are actually fragments of paintings that feature motifs found on sailors’ tattoos.

In 2012 Van Sonsbeeck created her Anti Drone Tent from emergency blankets, a material used to keep the body warm and render people invisible to drones. The news concerning refugees has significantly altered the meaning of the golden Mylar blanket. The media regularly show refugees cloaked in gold, like abstract forms, after a terrible sea crossing. It is on this golden protective material, as eye-catching as it is wafer-thin, that Van Sonsbeeck is keen to reflect in the Oude Kerk, a centuries-old building that in origin also offers protection and shelter.

Sarah van Sonsbeeck (b. 1976) gained her MA in Architecture from TU Delft and a Bachelor in Visual Art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. From 2008 to 2009 she was one of the residents at the Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten – State Academy of Fine Arts – in Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited at the Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2017 & 2013); De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam (2013); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2013); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2012); Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2011); De Paviljoens, Almere (2009); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2009) and elsewhere.