Façades, 2020-2021
Electric lightbox, plexiglass, powder-coated aluminium
60 x 24 x 6”, 36 x 36 x 6”, 54 x 36 x 6”, 48 x 24 x 6”
Conjuring the experience of changing urban streetscapes, Façades explores nostalgia, loss, and the belated awareness of time: the realization that something has disappeared before one noticed it was gone, and the inability to recall exactly what once occupied its place. The series consists of four unmarked, double-sided illuminated sign boxes. With their words and information removed, only the signs’ formal and decorative elements remain, prompting associations with places that feel both familiar and elusive.
Functioning as a row of urban monuments or tombstones, Façades reflects on cultural space, heritage, and the latent meanings embedded within public signage. The absence of text removes an immediate indicator of audience and purpose, leaving the signs suspended in ambiguity. They could signal arrival or departure, welcome or exclusion. By stripping away the clarity of language, the work asks what remains communicable through form alone, what is lost through omission, and how visual cues shape feelings of hospitality, belonging, or intimidation.
Installation photos by Derek Sandbeck, IFDocumentation and Toni Hafkenscheid.