Antechamber (Installation)

This research moves beyond traditional understandings of the presentation of photography, by utilising complex installation techniques to create physically and conceptually expansive spaces in which to view photographs.

In this research work large-scale installations create bespoke environments from which to consider photographic images. The experience of viewing the photographs is intensified in a multi-sensory way using colours, textures, objects and sounds that embody qualities within the photographic image, to create an immersive viewing experience, to explore how the environment surrounding the image informs how it is viewed and encountered.

In this research project, the work, ‘Antechamber’ comprised a large-scale 3-d installation, designed in response to elements found within the photographic work it incorporated, ‘Patterns and Signs from the Invisible World’ (2024).

Central to this photographic work, which focused on a derelict interior, was a wooden panel with cut out sections which formed an unintentional and abstract composition. In response to the photograph, a replica of the wooden panel was erected in the installation. This large-scale structure was punctured with cut out sections that echoed those depicted in the photographic work.

This panel sat alongside a work from the Museum’s art collection, ‘January’ (1962) oil on canvas by artist Roger Hilton (1911 – 1975), which was incorporated within the installation. The positioning and intentional proximity of these works, sought to draw them into relationship, to forge links between the visual language stemming from the panel’s punctured cut out shapes, that created an unintentional, but none the less apparent pattern, formed by the panel’s original function and the mark-making and composition employed in Hilton’s abstraction.

This installation, devised to have a transformative effect on the museum environment in which it was presented, also incorporated fabrics and floor coverings to alter the atmosphere of the gallery space. These spatial interventions took the form of large-scale black curtains, which enveloped the space, alongside black carpet, which covered the floor. Both spatial interventions not only heightened the sense of theatricality within the installation, a key quality, which is core to the conceptual underpinning of thematic running through these installation works, but was also used to muffle the viewer’s footfall as they moved throughout the installation, dramatically altering the acoustics within the gallery space.

The research’s engagement in collaborative and cross disciplinary practice, in particular, as founder of electronic record label TONN Recordings, has been a catalyst in recent experimentation with audio elements. As part of the research, this installation also debuted a new modular synth composition by electronic artist Sean McBride of Martial Canterel (U.S.), made in response to the photograph, which formed the basis for this installation. The musical element of this project was audible in the gallery at different times of the day, further enriching the experience of moving through the installation and engaging with this work.