Double Seeing (2021) is a permanent installation commissioned for the early classicist façades at Kunstverein Braunschweig. The clear initial challenge of the location is to find a sensitive form of implementation that can do justice to both the protection of the ancient building and the presence of the contemporary institution. Developing an idea especially for the context, Etchells emphasises the doubling and mirroring of the two coach house buildings which flank the main Kunstervein space of the villa, by comically repeating the existing architectural repetition. Along an imaginary horizontal and vertical mirror axis, the installed work reiterates the word combination “DOUBLE SEEING” four times in neon letters, playing the text backwards and forwards, placing it in correct/legible positions as well as reversed and upside down orientations.

Thanks to the simple play on words that is characteristic of Etchells practice, the light installation can be swiftly grasped as pedestrians, drivers and cyclists pass by the location, but it also lingers in the mind, inviting complex variations and associations, and drawing the viewer into yet a further doubled act of seeing.

About Tim Etchells’ neon and LED works
Etchells’ neon and LED pieces often draw on his broader fascinations as an artist, writer and performance maker, exploring contradictory aspects of language – the speed, clarity and vividness with which it communicates narrative, image and ideas, and at the same time its amazing propensity to create a rich field of uncertainty and ambiguity.

Through simple phrases spelt out in neon, LED and other media, Etchells strives to create miniature narratives, moments of confusion, awkwardness, reflection and intimacy in public and gallery settings. Encountering the neon sign works, in the streets of a city or in the space of a white cube gallery, the viewer becomes implicated in a situation that’s not fully revealed, or a linguistic formulation that generates confusion or ambiguity. As often in Etchells’ work, in the neons the missing parts of the picture are as important as the elements that are present. Invoking a story, or projecting an idea out-of-context, the work invites us in, but into what exactly we can’t be sure.