PROPOSAL: Beyond The Boundaries (Revised Show)

If you could look into the seeds of time… (2021),

photographs, pins, electric fan, dimension variable

During current times where we are experiencing a worldwide pandemic, uncertainty and disruption are normal. For viewers to come into physical spaces like galleries are problematic and during lockdown periods, impossible. England is slowly letting up restrictions again after a long winter of discontent, and as a consequence Beyond the Boundaries (originally intended for a physical space) is re-presenting itself in a physical space rather than only online. UCA (Farnham) have allocated two galleries for the MA Fine Art group to use, the Foyer Gallery and the Linear Gallery. The show will run from the 17th April until the 14th May 2021.

The extension of Beyond the Boundaries show is an opportunity to present a new piece of work if desired. the introduction (2021) was not appropriate for the Foyer or Linear Galleries due its size and I have taken the opportunity to create another piece of work. Expanding on notions of animation and bringing life to the fragments and objects I have collected, I took inspiration from the phantasmagorical shows of the 18th and 19th centuries. Using trickery to give an illusion of life after death, these show-men and show-women would deceive their audiences into believing the unbelievable, and imagine the unimaginable. When electricity came into use in the 19th century, it brought new tools for trickery.

If you could look into the seeds of time… is a play on illusion on many levels. The proposed work will consist of a series of polaroid-style photographs of a selection of objects collected. Setting a stage with lights to photograph the objects is where the trickery begins. Behind the scenes the objects are illuminated with electric lights, then transformed from real to unreal in the form of pixelated dots. They become an impression of themselves and begin to move beyond the narrative of their entity. The polaroid-style photographs are themselves an illusion as they are not taken with a polaroid camera but taken with a mobile phone, the contemporary method of fast photography. Rather than the instant image the polaroid camera or the mobile phone produces, the process is slow and laborious. To present the work my intention is to display the photographs on a wall in a system of sorts and an electric fan placed in front and beneath blowing air upwards. This will encourage movement and give an impression of animation.

The outcome for the proposed work is a carefully staged operation, where movement is produced through technology and the objects are a ghost of their former selves. I propose to show the work in the Linear Gallery where there is a small corner that I can tuck the electric fan out of harms way.

If you could look into the seeds of time…(2021)

Drawing for the Project Proposal, Beyond the Boundaries