Dubbel 00 2010

2010, interactive projection

Model: cardboard, glue, 100 x 65 x 12 cm (H)

MDF plint: 100 x 65 x 85 cm (H)

Darkened space: 4 x 8 m

Dubbel 00 is an interactive installation consisting of an animation film projected on to a sculpture in a darkened room. It is closely related to the scuptures Dubbel 16 and On the beach. The sculpture is a cardboard model of Lions Head, a mountain next to the Table Mountain in Cape Town, RSA. The sculpture is made of hand-cut layers of bright white Bristol cardboard glued on each other until the mountain arises. Each layer expresses/visualises an contour line. The sculpture is placed on a white painted plint standing in the middle of a darkened space. The animation video is projecting a wriggling swarm of unidentified creatures moving from the bottom of the moutain to the top and back, on to the sculpture. The programmation of animation combined with a motion sensor creates an interactive play between the animated swarm on the mountain and the movements of the visitors. With no visitors in the dark room, the mountain is fully covered by the swarm, reflecting a noctural view of a urban environment. When entering the room and approaching the sculpture, the swarms quickly dissapears and the mountain brightly lights up. When moving away from the sculpture, the swarm comes back and starts to cover the moutain again. A contour line represents a virtual reality, not visible in the landscape. Dobbels tries to make these lines tangible and visible. It is an attempt to control and to understand nature by repeatedly measuring and mapping territories. But, at the end, one never succeeds in it. Dobbels also questions the relationship between perception and reality and how individuals relate to the landscape. We live in a makeable world and artifical landscape, where borders are constructed or shifted,

depending on political and economic realities. Things may look beautiful from the outside, but may simultaneously hide a dark reality. The viewer may be seduced by the beauty of the work, but at the same time will realise the ambiguity within the piece , which is reflected not only in its time-consuming and obsessive production, but also in its (virtual) content.