If we watch long enough

Berg van Barmhartigheid
Ghent, Belgium
2022

If we watch long enough, 2023
PVC window film
Berg van Barmhartigheid , Ghent, Belgium

A thermal camera was used to capture the heat emitted from the window’s surface on a sunny day. Multiple images of the entire glass surface were collected, one for each pane of glass, and then printed on PVC sticker film. These printed films were reapplied to the window, each aligned with the corresponding measured area.

This translucent material allows exterior light to color the hall’s interior with shades derived from the thermal patterns of that particular summer day. The window bears traces of its former state, and the sunlight that warmed the glass the day of the measurement now continues as the source that colors the interior in yellowish hues.

Here, the act of measuring interferes, imprints, and leaves behind traces that shape what is observed. The window is transformed into a layered surface, at once itself and its record, past and present, doubled by its own capture.