Incidence of Light
In 2018 I'm doing a project recidency at Overtoon. The first results.
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In June and July 2025 I was Soulangh Cultural Park in Taiwan for a 5 week long residency. During this short stay I’ve been exploring local ghost stories and working on Spirits of the Air, where I focus on the atmosphere and the mystery these stories carry. Sound of handmade wind instruments, scented mist and subtle light invite you into a space between worlds, somewhere between the known and the unknown. While working on the piece, nature force interrupted rigorously.
Near the village where I grew up, an old legend still lingers: the tale of the Witte Wieven (White Ladies in Dutch), ghostly women who appear as white mists over heathlands and marshes. Sometimes they take the shape of women in flowing white dresses. They’re said to be spirits of wise women or witches, luring wanderers into the mist, never to return.
As a child, I was once taken on a nighttime walk to search for them. The darkness and the wind in the trees amplified the eerie stories we were told. My imagination overtook me completely. I froze in fear, too terrified to take another step.
For this residency at Soulangh Cultural Park I’ve been looking out to similar ghost stories. I didn’t need to search far. There has been a serious battle between the Japanese and Taiwanese in 1895. They say that the the hungry ghosts of the fallen soldiers are still around, coming out in the night and hiding in the trees during the day.
Soulangh is an old sugar refinery transformed into a cultural spot in Jiali, Tainan. The old warehouses are surrounded by trees, many of them are very old Hinoki cypress trees planted by Japanese.
Five days before the opening of my exhibition, while I was working on the composition of my wind instruments, typhoon Danas came across the west side of Taiwan, its center hitting the park and destroying the old trees in just a few hours.
It upset me enormously to find the trees on the ground, smell the dead wood, see the confused birds that lost their nests. After 130 years, another battlefield happened. Where do the ghosts go, now the trees are not longer reaching towards the skies?
ABOUT THE WORK
Spirits of the air consists of a series wind instruments, dimm lighting, composed smells and fog. For this version at Soulangh Cultural Park I’ve brought wood from the destructed park inside, as an honor to the trees and as a memorial to the battle that happened in the past.
One kind of instrument is consisting of elastic bands whirling, sounding like the wind. Another is a spinning harmonica, inspired by my installation BROM, giving the installation a simple and soft melody. Multiples of both are suspended, a composition with the instruments makes you feel you landed in a subtle and poetic storm.
A breeze of scent is the next spirit in the work. For this occasion I’ve worked with smells of cedar and cypress trees, and also composed a smell that reminds you of a wet forest. The lighter and woodier smells blend in the middle of the space.
Fog and subtle lighting conceal the dimensions of the room and bring a certain air to the room that fits the athmosphere.