De Gatendragers

Esmee Geerken received a grant to work on her debut novel De Gatendragers. The story is inspired by foraminifera: single-celled sea creatures that build a skeleton out of calcite. In her novel, we follow Emerald, who enters into conversation with a Dutch Elm, the Earth and the Universe.

Esmee is a Dutch artist and Earth scientist, with a hybrid practice inspired by foraminifera shells, (sea) soil sediments, biomineralisation, architecture and philosophy, among others. Her artistic projects question our perception of the obvious - the curvature of the earth, and the peculiar - how organisms, such as humans, form their shells within an environment. Esmee is specifically interested in the borderlands between life and non-life, between order and chaos, and in the interactions that take place in building; creating an inside in the outside, and balancing the permeability of our shells, from mind to skyscraper, from language to CO2. In her projects, she collaborates with scientists, artists, designers and architects, and the materials and creatures she encounters as an earth scientist, such as seagulls, sahara dust, foraminifera, and ocean currents.