Outside of the Frame.

My research fellowship at Cambridge University is located at the Fitzwilliam Museum with the intention of seeking new ways to create material conduits between us and the exhibits that inhabit its' spaces. Whilst I will be in residence in Cambridge for a two week period in Easter term the research process has already begun and stretches beyond my time there.

I have become increasingly focussed on the 'vitrine' and its capacity to pull us in and yet physically keep us at bay - to arrest the possibility of decay and object mortality. Enclosed and hermetically sealed - our close interrogations are in touching distance and yet the objects and their knowledges are omnipresent as they circle and surround us. In my ongoing practice research the barriers and cordons of the art/museum are a critical component that we virtually hurdle or physically bang up against. We understand why we are distanced, and why conserving and protecting imagery, artefacts and objects is necessary but we can overlook what these material barriers mean beyond practicality. The spaces of the art/museum are complicated. We are placed in a space that is predominantly about material engagement, and asked to see and encounter these extraordinary materials differently often through a non- material encounter.

These images are taken at the Fitzwilliam looking at the objects shadows, and reflections in the vitrines. The objects impact is more than we see and what we see and understand is more than the object itself.. They exist alongside the objects and artefacts, they are part of an optical experience. The casts of cast, the echoes of shapes fill and charge the surrounding space of the cabinets. Shadows ricochet, ripple and multiply.

​

​