2019, multi media installation, audio loop 42’00” min., 14 speakers, 17 cyanotype prints on hospital sheets, size 130 x 220 cm, 17 light bulbs

As an artist-in-residence I spent three months at the psychiatric ward of the Kings County Hospital in New York. Inspired by this environment, I created 'Reality'; an audio-visual installation that reflects on what it is like when things no longer seem to be what they should.

In 'Reality' you wander between life-size blueprints of patients and staff on hospital sheets. The characters tell on the basis of personal stories and anecdotes what it's like to lose grip on reality. Experiences in which emotions, feelings and other ways of thinking are very apparent.

Because the stories are told from an inclusive perspective the work is touching on deeper, less comprehensible aspects of the mind. The installation makes you part of this exciting area which concerns the lived reality and brings about a world otherwise unknown to us.

‘Reality’ invites the visitor to break free from common assumptions that include opinions, judgments, norms, values and causal relationships. Get acquainted with different experiences of reality to transcend our own experience.

“My experience is different and the experience of that other person is different. And that doesn’t deny either it’s less true or less real. It’s just different. I think what I’m trying to propose is that if we open up ourselves to the idea that potentially, into certain extent we’re making up reality.”

(Fragment uit: 'Reality')

Link to audiotrack