Heidi is fearless, she seeks the dark to create live spaces for the mind to dwell in.

How different was it to work in the space of Probe compared to other Exhibition spaces?

Working in Probe was obviously quite different from 1:1 exhibition spaces because of it’s scale. Probe is a scale model of a fictitious museum. You can agree with the stated scale of 1:4, but the space might also be 1:10. Then the museum referred to would be a huge hall, like Tate Modern.
What makes Probe a special model is that its dimensions are not only different from a real museum, but also from the scale of the models I usually work with. Those models, which I rarely show in an exhibition, can be held in two hands, and even be thrown if I'd want to. But you can not get inside. Probe however is physically accessible. After being inside Probe for a while, I forgot the actual scale.  The space then felt as if it were a real room with normal dimensions, in which I did't feel like a giant anymore but merely like a scaled visitor. So that is what Probe is capable of. I would conclude that the difference between Probe and real space eventually disappears, and that therefore the difference with small, manageable models is more relevant.

What did you want to create?

I won't give away the original place. I'll restrict myself to mentioning that it is a replica of a once existing abandoned shop I came across about a year ago. In fact, I recently noticed that it is again abandoned, after being exploited for a short period of time. In Probe, I created my interpretation of this place by reducing it to light and dark, like a graphic drawing in space.

In stead of searching the objects and designing the space, every object in my installation was actually present in the original space. So I didn't create a story, I just aimed to reveal one. I am fascinated by spaces that escape from spatial planning processes and policies and transform to autonomous, living creatures. These spaces take on chaotic shapes and show traces of human presence. These physical elements grow out to environments so strange, and yet so real, that they make me curious to what's behind.

What is behind, may be individual events, but are always related to larger movements in society. For instance, since the 2008 crisis urban areas show more empty buildings, which remain unoccupied longer than before. But why should this be avoided? Of course, for those involved, a vacant shop or office building is disadvantageous. So we tend to have it occupied, by no matter what or whom. However I think that leaving an abandoned shop building empty for, let's say, 50 years could also be an experiment, a monument and a public place for silence.

When reality bears a secret, it is at least as exciting as imagination, if not more exciting. In my archived spaces, which I visited all, I aim to hide the information by reducing it to light and dark drawings. They hereby become anonymous and autonomous, and give room for one's own interpretations.

What obstacles did you run into?

In my studio, where I had made a mini-Probe, I had already discovered that the surrounding area should be completely dark in order to create my desired shadow  effect. In my studio I have only two windows. The Suze May Sho studio had about five windows and an opening in the ceiling, all letting daylight in. And then there were also artificial lights, laptops lights, and so on...To get the shadow fully dark, I had to darken the  surroundings. This was no real obstacle for me, but it might have been to Suze May Sho, as they were working very hard on a big project those days. It was amusing however to notice how turning off the lights made the studio calm and quiet. We should do so more often. We seem more tense when working under tubelights.

Having completed the black-out, the existing Probe ceiling appeared a bit too thick for a hard shadow to pass through. I've tried five different foils. The selected foil happened to not only to create an almost palpable shadow, but also it made the passing light almost solid, a kind of fog, especially seen from the dark area. The foil acted as a "frost filter, a light filter which is also used in theaters to create a cold, diffused light. This was a surprise to me. The initial obstacle of the ceiling eventually led to something good.

What I neither expected was that it would get so dark that some objects would no longer be perceived, at least not by the camera's eye. There are many more objects in the Probe space than we can actually see. As a visitor, one might discover them, or not. Somehow I like the idea that I made a collection of object that is party visible, and partly has disappeared in the space.

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