Corridors of Memory
LiDAR scans, oral testimony and spatial sound become an immersive archive of homes in Overschild. Presented at the Groninger Museum in 2026.
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About / Amsterdam, Netherlands
Gus Drake
Gus Drake is a Dutch-American interdisciplinary artist based in Amsterdam, with roots in Groningen.
Drake works with landscapes and communities undergoing change. Photography is the foundation of his practice, which extends into film, installation, LiDAR, sound and immersive environments.
His projects explore memory, ecological relationships and the perception of place. Through sustained observation and collaboration, Drake creates images and spatial experiences that bring viewers closer to the people, places and living systems around them.
Drake graduated in Photography from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague, in 2022, and co-founded New Horizon Initiative with photographer Dirk-Jan Visser.
Artist statement
Drake’s practice begins with sustained attention to places in transition and to the lives entangled with them. Photography is its point of departure: a way to notice what is present, what is changing, and what risks being lost. Across photography, film, LiDAR, sound and immersive installation, Drake brings personal memory into conversation with architecture and ecological change.
Working with residents, researchers and technical collaborators, Drake develops forms of observation that make overlooked relationships perceptible. A home may become a living archive; a garden, a record of seasonal time. These works invite audiences to encounter landscape not as a backdrop, but as a shared and continually changing world.
Selected work
Landscapes in Motion
Four cameras observe a Groningen garden for a year. More than 300,000 photographs reveal cycles of growth, decay and seasonal transformation.
Ode to Home
A long-term engagement with families in Overschild, exploring home, memory and loss through photography, interviews, camera obscuras and installation.
New Horizon Initiative
Co-founded with Dirk-Jan Visser in 2022, an interdisciplinary artistic research initiative exploring human and non-human relationships through photography, ecology and computational image-making.
Recognition & support
- 2026First Prize — FJD Trion Reality Capture Stories CompetitionAwarded for Corridors of Memory.Read the project story ↗
- 2026BPD CultuurfondsDevelopment support for Corridors of Memory at the Groninger Museum.
- 2024–2025Mondriaan Fonds — Artist StartPractice-development support contributing to Corridors of Memory and Landscapes in Motion.View the Mondriaan Fonds profile ↗
Selected background
Exhibitions & presentations
- 2026IBC — Future Tech Ignite, RAI AmsterdamCorridors of Memory, presented in partnership with FJD Trion.
- 2026Groninger Museum, GroningenCorridors of Memory, solo presentation within Bakstain, 9 May–23 August.
- 2026Prospects / Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam AhoyLandscapes in Motion, 27–29 March.
- 2023Ode to Home — MEMORY MUSEUM, GroningenSolo exhibition supported by Nationaal Programma Groningen, BPD and Erf Goed Partners.
- 2023Regenerate — Noorderlicht International Photography FestivalMuseum Belvédère, Heerenveen.
- 2023Next Nature / Space Farming — Dutch Design Week
- 2023Vergezicht GroningenBeeld & Geluid, The Hague; MartiniPlaza, Groningen.
- 2022United Nations Climate Change Conference — COP27First New Horizon Initiative pilot, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
- 2022Sirius Initiative — Vrij Paleis, Amsterdam
- 2022Alkahest — KABK Graduation Exhibition, The Hague
Talks, teaching & interviews
- 2025Leiden University — MA Environmental HumanitiesGuest lecture with Dirk-Jan Visser on creative practice and non-human perspectives.
- 2025Annual IPO Conference — Provinces of the NetherlandsScreening of Ecological Frontier / New Horizon Initiative, panel discussion and workshop.
- 2025Sparks of the Pluriverse — Nieuwe InstituutInterview with Erik Wong.
- 2022Pakhuis de Zwijger, Theater De Tamboer & WongemaArtist talks on Ode to Home, hosted by Luis Stiller.
Publications & commissions
- 2023Kroniek van Overschild: Toekomst Zonder VerledenBook publication; collaboration with Martin Hillenga and Saskia Jeulink, supported by Erf Goed Partners and Verhalen van Groningen.
- 2019–2025Waterschap AGVCommissioned artistic portrait series of heritage sites in and around Amsterdam.
- 2022–2023Dagblad van het NoordenFeatures on Ode to Home.
- 2020RTV NoordLive television appearance on Ode to Home.
Education
- 2019–2022BA PhotographyRoyal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague, Netherlands.