Kapspant voor de Stationsoverkapping S.S. te Tandjong Priok in bewerking, in onze Constructiewerkplaats te Ngagel (Soerabaia) 1916 - 1924

This photograph shows the construction workshop in Ngagel, Soerabaia, where the roof for the Tandjong Priok station was being made, though we don't know by whom. Imagine the scene, captured in monochrome, the huge trusses of the roof structure scattered across the floor. I think it's about potential. There’s so much work that has to happen before the project can take shape. I feel a sense of order, but also a sense of everything being in pieces. And here are these massive industrial machines, dwarfing the people who worked there, and all that iron and steel waiting to be assembled. The workers are absent, but it's like I can feel their labour. The way these elements relate to each other reminds me how one thing leads to another and how that relates to my own work as a painter. Like, how a stroke of color might suggest another, which makes me think about everything connecting, always, and how we're all influencing each other, even across time.