


Location: a flat between white gypsum dunes after rain, under a flat white overcast sky with no sun and no cloud shape, cold white sand running out in every direction with no plant, no building, no track and no horizon detail; lying on the flat is a wide shallow pool of standing rainwater, and the water is flat black and opaque and shows nothing under its surface; the sand, the sky, the water, the silk, the slip and every other thing in this picture are black and white, monochrome, grayscale, with no colour in them, and her bare skin is the one warm, lifelike thing in the whole frame Position: a low camera set right down at the level of the water on the near side of the pool, so the black water fills the lower half of the frame and the white sand and white sky fill the upper half, with the waterline running straight across the middle: she stands in the middle of the pool with the black water at her ankles, her back turned squarely to the camera, feet together, knees straight, spine perfectly vertical, and both arms raised straight above her in one narrow V with a fist closed on the silk in each hand; eleven metres of fine white silk is taken by the wind out of the top of the V and streams away to one side, out of the edge of the frame, in one long thin line with S-shaped ripples along it; the still black water repeats her upside down, so her raised V and its inverted reflection meet at her feet and make one closed shape, and the streaming silk is doubled the same way; her very long dark hair, grey strands showing through it, hangs down her bare back and is lifted at its ends by the same wind; her face is turned away from the camera and is not in the picture; the sand and the sky are white and the water is black, and her arms, her shoulders, her back and her legs are the only warm, lifelike skin in the frame Clothing: Lieke wears the plain white bias-cut silk slip cut close so it takes the shape of her waist and hips, ending at mid-thigh and wet at the hem, all of it rendered in pale grayscale tones, and she is barefoot in the black water






