Wunderkammer
The Nunnery Gallery
March 2012
Transmission V-VIII (2012) Installation: photographic prints on optical lenses.
Transmission V-VIII (2012) Installation: photographic prints on optical lenses.
Transmission V-VIII "Wunderkammer" The Nunnery Gallery in March 2012.
Through this work seeks to combine three main areas of research, including historical photographic documentation of (pseudo)-scientific research, historical modes of cataloguing and displaying artefacts, and historical scientific equipment - specifically optical devices. I am especially interested the way in which nineteenth century photographic "evidence" produced through pseudo-scientific research quickly adopted the key visual aesthetics of "serious" scientific research photography.
The staging of the installation upon a wooden trolley conjures up ideas that you are observing the drawing room of a rather eccentric (mythical) gentleman collector. The "transmissions" captured onto the lenses draw inspiration from nineteenth century documentation of occult phenomena - they are in fact entirely staged. By combining layered optical lenses (printed using traditional darkroom techniques) within an articulated cabinet made specifically for the exhibition, the images can be folded and unfolded to align different combinations of occult phenomena.
Transmission V-VIII (2012) detail
Transmission V-VIII (2012) detail