ECHO: new installation by Stephen Dean at Elbow Church

In the Elleboogkerk is currently ECHO on view, a new spatial installation by artist Stephen Dean. The work is an adaptation of Crescendo, the monumental installation Dean realized at the Basilique de Saint-Denis in 2024. For the Elbow Church, the artist developed a new composition that responds specifically to the architecture, light and scale of the space.

Light that breathes

In the church, five monumental ladder sculptures hang in space. Each ladder consists of successive planes of two-tone, dichroic glass that capture, refract and reflect light. Daylight and artificial light mix to form ever-changing fields of color that slide across the walls and floor. Colors appear, disappear and re-form, a stilled but constantly changing experience in which architecture, material and light coincide.

Between the rungs of the ladders are sheets of glass in a variety of colors that can change depending on the visitor's point of view and the angle of light. The result is an optical choreography that unfolds throughout the church.

The ladder as a universal symbol

The ladder is a form found in various cultures and religions as a symbol of connection between heaven and earth. At the same time, it remains an object closely associated with human scale and action. ECHO is therefore nicely in line with the exhibition Stairway to...? at Kunsthal KAdE.

About Stephen Dean:

Stephen Dean is a French-American artist who lives and works in New York. He creates installations, videos and watercolors centered on color. His work explores how color works directly on the body and senses, even before language, interpretation or meaning.
As he says himself: “Some colors have a name, others need to be thought of,” he said.”

The installation ECHO can be seen at the Elleboogkerk (Langegracht 36, Amersfoort) until August 30, 2026.