rethinkingcabinetsofcuriosity

new exhibition within the drawers of Maxwell's Lab cases. The latest exhibition is in the Cavendish Museum in the Physics Department on the West Cambridge site http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/outreach/museum Thinking about making and making through thinking. For artists, the majority of the work they create is invisible to a public outside their studio. This work often takes the form of sketches, notes and material tests existing in notebooks and discarded objects in the studio on its way to becoming something 'finished'.

The collection of double page spreads in the drawers are a form of visual note book. The pages act as a repository for some of the pieces or 'props' that were created for and used within finished film pieces. The spreads are full of ideas, possible starting points and contain many elements of the finished works - they are in effect a sort 'look book' or 'mood board' of the project. 

The idea of revelation is at the core of my history with the book. Here the action has been recreated by literally opening the drawers to reveal the inner space where ideas are stored. The placing of the pieces references the late 19th century practice of displaying objects within cabinets of wonder or curiosity – these are modern versions of the contents of Cabinets of Curiosities.

Much of my work has been about exploring space, the space between and the space of making, the idea of negative space. Within science, words have a particular and specific meaning, but for me I feel I am allowed to play with this idea and the articulated structures are tools that heighten an awareness of the hand movements whilst demonstrating scientific processes. They are starting points to consider actions in space.

The glove box and the laboratory are very specific spaces. That they often protect the specimen within the experiment from us rather than us from it is an intriguing idea. These spaces created to manipulate objects are contained, clean, dry in an attempt to be 'non'.   Within this extraordinary space, specific materials and situations are monitored, ready to be recreated, actions controlled to be repeated. These spaces have their parallel in the art world: the space of the gallery, the white cube where the art is on show, an anonymous space where the art is supposedly the focus. Obviously no space is neutral and each have their meanings, which can be read, but the aspiration to create a static continuum brings to mind the words of Heraclitus 'No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.'  It appears that science and art are constantly trying to create a time and space where the river is still.