high up close by

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.

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misha de ridder is a celebrated Dutch photographic artist. His quiet images elicit a deep, meaningful engagement with how we perceive and understand the world around us. misha de ridder's work has been widely exhibited amongst others at Coda Museum, Foam Photography Museum, FoMu Photo Museum Antwerp, Juliètte Jongma Gallery, Rosegallery Santa Monica, Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Museum of the City of New York and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. de ridder’s work has been acquired by major collections like the Amsterdam City Archives, Foam Photography Museum, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Museum Voorlinden.