Jonas Vansteenkiste

A Double Standard
On the psychology of inclusion and the aesthetics of exclusion

In the installation A Double Standard, Jonas Vansteenkiste explores the often-unnoticed tensions between how we present ourselves as social beings and how we act when confronted with the boundaries of our own territory. The work is both disarmingly simple and conceptually layered: a sign reads “Welcome,” yet the viewer is immediately confronted with a pristine white fence—an architectural element of separation, exclusion, and ownership. The contradiction is immediate and visceral. It does not rely on didacticism, but rather on lived experience: the dissonance between word and gesture, invitation and denial.

The title of the work references the psychological and social phenomenon of the "double standard"—the application of different sets of principles to similar situations, often depending on who is involved. This discrepancy is rarely deliberate. Rather, it is embedded in a network of cognitive distortions and social conditioning. Vansteenkiste engages with research in social psychology, particularly the work of Dr. Martha Foschi (2000), whose studies demonstrate how factors such as gender, race, class, and perceived status unconsciously influence our judgments and expectations of others. According to Foschi, individuals from socially dominant groups are often judged more leniently than those perceived to be of lower status—a mechanism that reflects and perpetuates structural inequality.

These biases do not only function at the level of systems or institutions. They are enacted in daily life—in gestures, decisions, and in the silent architectures we construct around ourselves. A Double Standard visualizes this tension through the language of minimal sculpture. The clean aesthetics of the white fence seduce the viewer while simultaneously denying access, reflecting how exclusion is often concealed beneath a veneer of civility or hospitality. The contrast between the inclusive rhetoric (“Welcome”) and the reality of the physical barrier functions as a metaphor for the duplicity of social behavior. We profess openness, but we enforce boundaries. We promote tolerance, but remain selective in its application.

Vansteenkiste does not accuse; instead, he reflects. His installation functions as a spatial mirror, gently forcing viewers to recognize the contradictions embedded in their own attitudes. The piece invites self-examination: whom do we welcome unconditionally, and whom do we subtly—or overtly—keep out? What norms are we willing to bend for ourselves but rigidly enforce for others?

By using architectural language to materialize social and psychological thresholds, A Double Standard exposes how our private values often diverge from our public expressions. It invites us to scrutinize the subtle mechanisms of belonging, the infrastructures of privilege, and the quiet violence of polite exclusion.

Special thanks to Maika Pieters and Eline Gheysens.

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