Two in a Hat, Mask and Dress
1969
Installation, ca. 12 m.
Materials: red silk
Collection: Private Collection.
"I imagine: 'two people in a mask', that can be interesting as an object. In a class for example, that would be effective, if a teacher would put on such a mask. How do you talk from a distance? How does distance influence communicability? Anyway, I am now being interviewed in a 33 meters mask, which makes the interview very different.
[…]
I divided the show in the 'Institute' [Wide White Space Gallery] into different parts. First there was the hat, in which the heads were fixed, and at the bottom the two students in the mask, who were meant purely as an ornament."
Source: James Lee Byars in an interview by Geert Bekaert and Walter Van Dijk in Streven, Vol. 22.