Between Whispering Walls, immersive installation, 2020

Underneath the skin of things familiar, the elusive presence of the outside calls. Between whispering walls, its unsettling allure remains distant. Here the world is approached backwards, the inside derived through the outside, a disguise that is as revealing as it is misleading.

The work Between Whispering Walls features a disguise for my own bedroom made entirely from dark brown sheep wool. As a viewer, you slide behind the romantic wallpaper into a parallel dimension. A world that is different from ours yet remains the same place. Inside the room you are forced to rely on senses other than sight. As your eyes get used to the dark, you will notice at a certain point that one of the woollen shapes is actually alive. You are not alone, you are an intruder standing in someone else’s room. The slow almost meditative movements of the performer unbothered by visitors create an eerily calm mood.

Wool is an inherently transformative and mutable material. It is soft and inviting yet the deep color tones of the brown wool make it incredibly mysterious and brooding.The wool equalizes all objects and beings in the room, transforming it into an entity that is both alien and strange yet also very intimate and familiar. The layered room confronts you with the distance between us and the things we hold dear. How well do we really know the objects we keep and the people and places we cherish? 

Between Whispering Walls, immersive installation, 2020

Between Whispering Walls, immersive installation, 2020

Photography by Django van Ardenne

Between Whispering Walls, immersive installation, 2020

Photography by Django van Ardenne

Between Whispering Walls, immersive installation, 2020

Photography by Django van Ardenne

Between Whispering Walls, immersive installation, 2020

Between Whispering Walls, immersive installation, 2020