A Sharded Castle

A Sharded Castle is a spatial installation in which the relationship between the inner world and the outer world takes center stage. The installation takes the form of a life-sized viewing box. As you walk around the box, you discover an opening through which you can step inside and take a seat within the enclosed space. Once seated, you are observed from behind by others, who look inside through a tube. This creates a situation in which seeing and being seen are inseparably connected.

The work originates from personal experience, inspired by my brother, who has a form of Down syndrome that causes him to exist largely within his own world and makes verbal communication difficult. This experience became a starting point for reflecting on the distance that can exist between someone’s inner experience and how it is perceived from the outside.

Within the installation, this distance becomes physically tangible. The visitor is situated in an enclosed space, visible to others, yet not fully accessible. What takes place inside remains partly intangible. The gaze from the outside becomes both palpable and limited.

“A Sharded Castle” explores how we look at others and to what extent we can truly access someone’s inner world. The work makes this tension visible and experiential, without attempting to fully explain it.