high up close by #18

Assembly presents misha de ridder’s “high up close by” in which the artist was entrusted with the key to the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in Amsterdam allowing him day and night access to all areas of the church. The Oude Kerk is located in the centre of Amsterdam's Red Light District and is the oldest building in the city, consecrated in 1306. The iconoclasm raged here in 1566, and the church slowly gained a serene, austere appearance as a result of the new religious ideas. When de ridder spent time alone with the building, the walls came alive in front of his lens. Every day he came closer to the hands that constructed and transformed the building, elusive as the ghost images created by his camera. At those moments, the tension between realism and abstraction became beautiful and tense, the transforming effect of the light was decisive. Together, the 21 photographs build a magical house of cards of the church, tokenized on the blockchain for eternity.