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Reality

2021, multimedia installation, 42-minute audio loop, 14 speakers, 17 cyanotype prints on hospital sheets, 130 x 220 cm, 17 light bulbs

Reality originated at the psychiatric ward of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, where I was invited as an artist-in-residence by Beautiful Distress and Het Vijfde Seizoen, two foundations that use art to foster dialogue on mental health and reduce stigma. This installation explores the fragile boundary between reality and delusion, placing the viewer in a fictional group conversation between psychiatric patients and caregivers.

As visitors wander among life-sized cyanotype prints of reclining figures on hospital sheets—with floating hair and gently lifted shoulders—a disorienting dialogue emerges from fourteen speakers. It reflects the moment when the grip on reality slips and nothing seems as it was.

On view at the Dutch Museum of Photography in Rotterdam from 07 February 2026 to 07 June 2026, as part of the group exhibition Awakening in Blue: An Ode to Cyanotype curated by Guinevere Ras.

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Through personal stories and anecdotes, these voices share what reality means to them and how it feels losing grip on it, bringing emotions, thoughts, and alternative perspectives into sharp focus. With an inclusive storytelling approach, ‘Reality’ unveils the deeper, elusive layers of the mind, a world often unfamiliar to us. The installation invites visitors to shed assumptions—opinions, judgments, norms, and fixed ideas—and embrace diverse experiences of reality to transcend their own perspective.

As one voice reflects:
“My experience is different, and the experience of that other person is different. That doesn’t make either less true or less real. It’s just different. Perhaps, to some extent, we’re all shaping reality.”

This work explores the fragility of human nature, balancing delicately between hope and despair, normality and deviation. Through textiles and sound, the installation renders these inner tensions tangible, inviting quiet reflection on how we come to define what is ‘real’.

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Acknowledgement more

Beautiful Distress
Het Vijfde Seizoen
Mondriaan Fonds
Amsterdams Fonds voor de kunst
TextielLab
Clients and caregivers Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn (NY)
Carlos Rodriguez-Perez
Fleur Kuipers
Wilco Tuinebreijer
Suzanne Oxenaar
Esther Vossen
Christiaan Bastiaans
Francina Stolk
Zaïda Ringel

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2026, 'Reality', overview at Dutch Photomuseum, Rotterdam (NL)
2026, 'Reality', overview at Dutch Photomuseum, Rotterdam (NL)
2026, 'Reality', overview at Dutch Photomuseum, Rotterdam (NL)
2019, 'Reality', overview at Beautiful Distress House, Amsterdam (NL)
2019, 'Reality', overview at Beautiful Distress, Amsterdam (NL)
Registration of 'Reality' at 'Beautiful Distress House', Amsterdam, including a 5 minutes audio excerpt out of 42 minutes audiotrack
Registration of 'Reality' at 'Beautiful Distress House', Amsterdam, 2 minutes