installation view, RijksakademieOpen, 2013

photo G.J. van Rooij

Part of the opera once upon a particular occasion are special effects. Special effects always take place on another layer of fiction than the ongoing story in which the audience is supposed to be immersed. They are clearly constructed, ‘unreal’, yet powerful. A special effect is an abstract phenomenon that has its own specific visual idiom; that is why it fascinates me. I wanted to make a ‘cloud machine’ for my opera; I discovered that a mould works as a very basic machinery, able to produce many copies. The wooden mould that I made and the glass cloud are presented together.

cloud (special effect #2)

wooden mould with glass cloud, approximately 20x30x9cm