An installation set up in the back of house areas at Hive Gallery in Bolton as part of the group show Continuum. An exhibition of art from the University of Bolton tutors past and present. 15th July - 19th August 2023.
The installation was titled Altogether Other.
Making use of the usually inaccessible back of house areas, the installation sought to present ‘an other’. There was something else going on as part of this group show, and it felt as though something was under investigation, and those conducting the investigation had not long left. An assemblage of art objects were presented alongside ephemera one might expect to be present in the back areas such as stacked up chairs, a mop and bucket, a step ladder, and other housekeeping equipment. After weaving through the passageway of paintings and photographic installations, viewers would find themselves presented with a small room where the main piece of the installation was to be found. In this small room, there was a sculpture sat on top of an overhead projector, projecting the base of the sculpture onto the facing wall. The side of the sculpture was being recorded by an old analogue video camera which displayed its image onto a black and white television via a video cassette recorder. The installation seemed to be filming and projecting itself in an endless loop, awaiting a point of disturbance. This disturbance was ready to re-occur and repeat on the activation of those present carrying the congruent set of conditions.
Viewers were left with the feeling that they had departed the gallery environment temporarily, and had stepped beyond an imagined boundary into something else. An unsettling experience leading to viewers questioning whether they were allowed to be there. Something has happened here that was unexpected. It was still happening. A live repetition of an unknown, or peculiar set of circumstances.
This installation marks the beginnings of an open-ended investigation into aspects of hauntology, the paranormal, and pseudo-science orchestrated by an art practice which will continue to involve painting, photography, video, assemblage, and analogue or obsolete image-making technology. Altogether Other will be remade in another space for longer term investigations, and subject to change, development, and repetition as part of an artist residency to be announced soon.
