Throughout da Vinci’s notebooks, he writes to a phantom ‘you.’ You performs experiments, lifts hypotheses to conclusions, and wages silent arguments against him. You’s identity is a shifting one: at times you operates as a mirror to da Vinci himself, at other times a student, a reader, or an actor. This piece takes text from da Vinci’s notebooks, and reworks it; making You the active subject, rather than a phantom one.

Made in the early pandemic, Surface Essay was designed to be clicked through on a phone.