It’s all about trust
2023
It’s all about trust, 2023
Exhibition view
De Verffabriek, Ghent, Belgium
This exhibition explores time, trust, causality, and the ways we interpret phenomena beyond direct experience. At the core of the show is the artist’s decision to move all the light sources from his home into the exhibition space, leaving his residence in darkness. Through this act, the work explores the notions of evidence and belief. The exhibition also examines how instruments and simulations extend our perception, and the way knowledge and techniques from different periods intertwine.
It’s all about trust, 2023
Exhibition view
De Verffabriek, Ghent, Belgium
Ceiling and floor lights, desk lamps, nightstand lamps, hallway and bathroom lighting—all the light sources from the artist’s home have been relocated to the exhibition space, leaving his residence in complete darkness for the duration of the show.
Does the gathering of these lights here imply their absence there? Can we draw a direct link between the two? More simply, does this artwork serve as evidence of an event unfolding beyond the exhibition’s walls? If so, does the spectator become a witness—someone who deduces reality through logical causation?
This concept relies on trust. The viewer’s understanding is based not on direct observation but on the artist’s account. If this premise is accepted, a further reflection emerges: just as the lights cannot exist in two places at once, neither can the viewer.
What does the artist’s home look like without light? Where would these lamps be if they weren’t here? Likewise, where else could I be if not in this space? What alternatives exist, and what do they mean?
These imagined scenarios remain speculative—known but never experienced. The cost the viewer pays to attend mirrors the cost the artist pays to present: inhabiting a darkened home for the duration of the exhibition.
This piece is an act of reasoning, trust, and cost sharing.
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All the lights of my house, 2023
Does the gathering of these lights here imply their absence there? Can we draw a direct link between the two? More simply, does this artwork serve as evidence of an event unfolding beyond the exhibition’s walls? If so, does the spectator become a witness—someone who deduces reality through logical causation?
“If all the lights from the artist’s apartment are before me, they are no longer there.
As a result, his home remains in darkness for the duration of the show.”
As a result, his home remains in darkness for the duration of the show.”
This concept relies on trust. The viewer’s understanding is based not on direct observation but on the artist’s account. If this premise is accepted, a further reflection emerges: just as the lights cannot exist in two places at once, neither can the viewer.
“If all the lights from the artist’s apartment are before me, they are no longer there.
And given that I am here now, I cannot be anywhere else.”
And given that I am here now, I cannot be anywhere else.”
What does the artist’s home look like without light? Where would these lamps be if they weren’t here? Likewise, where else could I be if not in this space? What alternatives exist, and what do they mean?
These imagined scenarios remain speculative—known but never experienced. The cost the viewer pays to attend mirrors the cost the artist pays to present: inhabiting a darkened home for the duration of the exhibition.
This piece is an act of reasoning, trust, and cost sharing.
All the lights of my house, 2023
De Verffabriek, Ghent, Belgium
Simulations and models are essential for studying celestial bodies beyond our reach. In this exhibition, a holographic fan suspended from the ceiling replicates the computed chromaticity of a star, as it would be seen by the human eye if in space.
This device presents a bright bluish sphere, based on data derived from model spectra of stars. These synthetic stellar spectrums are used to compute the colors of stars as they would appear to a human observer in Space 1. This is possible by converting a spectrum to a representative color, a process akin to the way the human eye reacts to a spectrum of wavelengths, perceiving it as one color through the cone cells’ combined responses.
Such a color is presented by the swiftly rotating strips of RGB LEDs affixed to the fan’s blades 2. This type of projector is designed to trick our eyes through its rapid rotation, giving the illusion of continuous movement.
Simulations, instruments, models, and holographic fans, are devices built to serve the abilities and inabilities of our eyes.Thanks to countless tools, machines, and apparatuses throughout history, we have been able to get access to different spatial and temporal scales and this capacity allows us to catch a glimpse of the color of a Star, as it would appear to our eyes if they could actually reach it.
This levitating, rotating blue sphere functions as an allusion to something that exists, independently and in the absence of any direct human observer.
1 Jan-Vincent Harre, Rene Heller, Digital color codes of stars,
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Star (O6V), 2023
This device presents a bright bluish sphere, based on data derived from model spectra of stars. These synthetic stellar spectrums are used to compute the colors of stars as they would appear to a human observer in Space 1. This is possible by converting a spectrum to a representative color, a process akin to the way the human eye reacts to a spectrum of wavelengths, perceiving it as one color through the cone cells’ combined responses.
Such a color is presented by the swiftly rotating strips of RGB LEDs affixed to the fan’s blades 2. This type of projector is designed to trick our eyes through its rapid rotation, giving the illusion of continuous movement.
Simulations, instruments, models, and holographic fans, are devices built to serve the abilities and inabilities of our eyes.Thanks to countless tools, machines, and apparatuses throughout history, we have been able to get access to different spatial and temporal scales and this capacity allows us to catch a glimpse of the color of a Star, as it would appear to our eyes if they could actually reach it.
This levitating, rotating blue sphere functions as an allusion to something that exists, independently and in the absence of any direct human observer.
1 Jan-Vincent Harre, Rene Heller, Digital color codes of stars,
Astronomical Notes, 2021.
2 The presented color comes from the freely available database
offered by Jan-Vincent Harre and Rene Heller.
Star (O6V), 2023
De Verffabriek, Ghent, Belgium
From time to time, whistling sounds echo through the space, accompanied by flickering light from two ceiling-mounted screens. The brightness of the light shifts in response to the intensity of each whistle.
These sounds come from a wooden whistle, crafted from a branch of a sweet chestnut tree that took root near Ghent in the early 17th century. Its construction follows a simple method with origins tracing back to the Middle Iron Age.
This interplay of sound and light emerges from a fusion of elements, materials, and technologies—each rooted in different eras and regions, converging in a single moment.
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Under the light of a Sweet Chestnut Tree, 2023
These sounds come from a wooden whistle, crafted from a branch of a sweet chestnut tree that took root near Ghent in the early 17th century. Its construction follows a simple method with origins tracing back to the Middle Iron Age.
This interplay of sound and light emerges from a fusion of elements, materials, and technologies—each rooted in different eras and regions, converging in a single moment.
