My first solo show, The Architecture of Melancholy: Ruins opened this Friday 11/12/15 at Project Space Tilburg in Holland. I had been invited by the SEA Foundation, run by artists/curators Riet Van Gerven and Jan-Willem van Rijnberk to create a new installation – the brief was open so I was keen to experiment by producing new work and also revisit existing projects in new ways. One of the aspects of DRIVE that I have found very useful is the mentoring/consulting element; I approached fellow artist David Surman in November, and we talked through ideas around animation installations. For this show, I was interested in exploring ruination, within the frame of the Architecture of Melancholy, a body of work dealing with spaces that lament a broken/ruined present.

I arrived in Tilburg on Wednesday morning, bringing with me two new films that would form Broken Cage, which has developed through DRIVE as a first outcome of The Labyrinth of Ruins. My key desire in this program is to escape the linear character of the screened film, and enter space. The two films, one of an abandoned house in the Greek countryside and one of a crowded birdcage nearby were both aspects of a compressed labyrinthine space, all doors and windows, where one stays very still or is forced to perpetually wander between bars.

When I started making moving images, tv was still a box of wonders and I remain fascinated by the sculptural qualities of a black shape that emits light. I find something lacking in modern televisions, not quite the transparent veil of the cinema screen, nor the peep-show of a cube that plays video. So when the artists/curators of the gallery told me they had some televisions available, I was keen to use those for Broken Cage.

I had considered using plinths for the two screens, with the tv sets facing each other slightly, and with space in between so that the viewer could also walk through, but Riet showed me an old cabinet that belonged to the original house. This struck a chord, as the cabinet of curiosities has a lot of relevance within the labyrinth I’m trying to construct. Finally, the video of the birds was set on top of the cabinet, like a resting cage. The slow, fixed empty house went inside the cabinet, contained and enclosed in shadow.

Broken Cage Installation

Still from Broken Cage

The sound of the two videos, erratic birdsong and cicadas, was mixing with the music from the Apodemy installation in the main gallery space. For this show, I revisited the film and created two new chapters that were projected on canvas screens suspended from the ceiling, with Apodemy projected on a wall the middle. Leaving Broken Cage and entering Apodemy, the first film is of a metallic bird perpetually circling the city, building a transition between the works. The theme of the cage continued also within Apodemy, in an installation immersing the viewer into unseen views from the world of the film, with the projected images escaping the cloth screens and landing on the gallery walls. The cloth was loose at the bottom end, so as one passed by it moved slightly, adding new movement and an element of interactivity to the work.

Jan-Willem and Riet engaged deeply with the ideas of the show – it was fantastic that they were so hands-on and keen to collaborate and experiment. The final work included in the show was that in the shop front, a projection of The Violet Hour, a film that I created with curator Amy de la Haye for 1914 Now, for the London College of Fashion. We projected the film on to a thin canvas frame, and the projection continued through the glass, landing on the display opposite and the wooden panel at the back. The film was further mirrored in the main glass front and seemingly expanding into the city. Broken Cage was also multiplied through the glass, in a way that was pure serendipity.

The show is on until the first week of February at Project Space Tilburg Gust van Dijk, Tivolistraat 22, 5017 HP Tilburg.

Viewing by appointment: tel 013 5444495