Night-light

In 1999 I had an exhibition in Melbourne, Australia. The work consisted of 20 small light boxes (10 x 15 x 15cm) arranged on the wall over an area of approximately 400cm wide by 55cm high. A photographic image was set 10cm back in each light box with a mask on the front of the box forming an angled aperture that allowed the viewer a restricted view of the image and, by getting close and peering inside the box, they might, more or less see the entire image. So this was partly about establishing a spatial relationship between the viewer and the work. Another spatial dynamic was also at work. The photographs montaged in the images came from two sources. One set of photos was taken in London in 1995 when I returned to London for six months after having lived in Australia for seven years. The rest were taken a while after my return to Australia around the west of the city of Melbourne in 1998. The common factor in these two sets of images is that they were all shot at night with long exposures. Some of the Melbourne photos were shot in almost complete darkness, something that might not be quite so possible in London with its high levels of nocturnal ambient light.

The London photos were shot around the City of London, London Bridge and Borough. As I was walking home from Borough Market today through the Weston Street tunnel, under the Victorian viaduct that carries trains as far as New Cross or Deptford or thereabouts, recognising the brickwork of the tunnel from some of the photos I took 12 or so years ago. 12 years later I am living close to where some of the photos were taken, I thought of them as a link both backwards and forwards through space and time.

Night-light was exhibited at Westspace, Footscray, Melbourne, Australia, 13 March – 17 April 1999