2004, immersive installation, 10 x 10 x 2.3 meters, soundtrack 20'00", white curtains, metal tubes, blue floor, surround sound
Images above: Rijks Open 2004, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (NL)
‘You and I’ is a labyrinth of white curtains in which the viewer wanders, catching fragments of whispers between two lovers—footsteps, breathing, giggles, intimate words—without ever encountering them. The curtains brush against your skin, enticing you to wander further, while the voices remain intimate yet elusive.
The work was presented during the Rijks Open at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (NL).
Seen from a window high up in the space, the installation reveals a new layer: you realize you’ve been wandering through a three-dimensional text—‘You and I’, floating in curling letters above the blue floor, like clouds in the sky. This love letter, legible from above, with its labyrinthine anatomy, alludes to the romantic longing to become ‘we’—a longing that carries the risk of getting lost, its fulfillment as fleeting as drifting clouds that cluster together only to disperse again.
‘You and I’ merges different layers of reality: the tangible experience of the curtains, the fictional narrative of the lovers, and the psychological reality of language.
CAST & CREW
Concept & Direction
Yasmijn Karhof
Female voice
Siobhan de Jong
Male voice
Richard Blake
Sound
Nathalie Bruys / Yasmijn Karhof
With special thanks to
Staff and advisors Rijksakademie 2004
Janneke van Heesch
Elodie Hiryczuk
Sjoerd van Oevelen
© Yasmijn Karhof, 2004