Het afbreken van het West-Indisch Huis te Amsterdam 1786 - 1850

Gerrit Lamberts made this drawing of the demolition of the West-Indisch Huis in Amsterdam with pen and brown ink, accentuating it with gray washes. Buildings are never simply torn down: it takes labor to deconstruct them, piece by piece. The work Lambert depicts in his drawing, is not traditionally considered high art. The drawing's strength resides in its attention to the textures and forms that result from the deconstruction process. The broken brickwork, the stacks of lumber, and the figures performing the labor of demolition bring the scene to life. The West-Indisch Huis itself had been built by the Dutch West India Company, an organization infamous for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. By portraying the building's dismantling, Lamberts indirectly confronts complex themes of labor, politics, and consumption. This reminds us that the very fabric of a city is interwoven with the histories of those who built it, and those who were exploited in the process.