In a society where conformity, mass production of collective identities and behaviour are stimulated, identical twins occupy a remarkable position. On the one hand they form the ideal of uniformity, and on the other they wage a constant struggle to escape their uniformity, to go beyond this and to fight for their own individuality. Their sometimes dizzying conflict between individuality and deep seated inner and external similarity raises questions about subjectivity and 'differance'. In Blink, the viewer is confronted with a double projection of portraits. The portraits show unknown persons who can be seen briefly like ghosts. Their closed eyes and the sharp sound of an electronic flash suggest a instantaneous exposure, a flash from an unknown time. Who these people are, why and when the portraits were made remains uncertain. They have been taken out of the context of their lives and deprived of dramatic, socially determined identity and history. The portraits are projected in a mirror relationship across from each other with the viewer between the two projections. The soundscape that accompanies each portrait, mixes with the space and creates a timeless atmosphere in which echoes of long departed voices, nursery rhymes and muttered prayers surface. Each portrait in itself - originally painted, but animated by the computer - undergoes a metamorphosis, a slow melting with a transformation to a second person. In this, the visual similarities in the facial expressions are maintained for so long, and the transition is so smooth that confusion arises about the identity of the subjects of the portraits. The mirror relation with the projected portraits presents the viewer with a similar problem. Are we dealing with the same person, younger, later, older, a twin? What typography of similarities and differences in the faces determines if we can recognize and establish a (new) identity? Where does the true difference lie between these digital twins? The viewer, absorbed in a timeless environment of fleeting image and sound is confronted with his inability to record this amorphous migration of identity, and to access the real, inner difference.
– Geert-Jan Strengholt
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Sound: the use of ashes
2 video players, 2 LCD projectors, 1 sync starter
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1 9 9 7 
