Exhibition Views, Kunstenfestival Watou, Watou, Belgium
2021

Phosphene, 2021
Ambient white light, natural wall paint,
fluorescent pigment and satin acrylic extender.

Dimensions variable

Phosphene is based on a collection of sunlight patches photographed over a few years, whose blurred outlines are models for wall paintings in three locations of the Kunstenfestival Watou : the house, the church and the Lovie’ castle. Each of these pictorial atmospheres is unique and can’t be observed simultaneously with another - their coexistence only persists in the memory of the onlooker.

This play with the outer limits of human vision and attention is also accentuated by the very subtle contrast of colors between the applied paint (or varnish) and its background. The outlines of the painted sunlight patches appear more defined from afar and vanish while approaching them. Up close, dizziness and eye floaters might take over the clarity of the field of vision. The juxtapositions of different shades of similar whites can be demanding for the eyes. It echoes, for example, with the visual fatigue experienced after prolonged time behind screens. Thus, the biological limitations of the human eye open to other ways of seeing, beyond the utterly phenomenological dimensions.

Photos : Dirk Pauwels (1) and Amelia Bowles (2 - 3)