Hannah Jame

HOW, WHAT, WHY Synopsis Q to an unspecified object

Selected Interiors, Cotham School

Selected Interiors, Cotham School is collection of twenty two 35mm colour slides which are presented on a rotating slide carousel projector. The projector is placed on the floor and the projected image is around 20x30cm. The colours in the slides are of a vivid nature and the sound of the projector rotating is present in the space. The slides depict books that have been opened on particular pages presenting photographs of 20th century paintings within an ‘art book’ format accompanied by explanatory text. Each painting depicts a form of domesticated interior space. In some of the slides hands and fingers are visible pointing at particular paintings and in others the slides have been drawn and written on directly, presumably to focus the viewers attention.

Selected Interiors, Cotham School

How was it made?

The collection of 20 slides were found in a secondary school, Cotham School. They have just been represented in a new context. The slides are documentation of postcards and books that have been opened on various pages, showing reproductions of paintings from the 20th century. The paintings all depict scenes of domestic interior spaces.

Where did it come from?

The slides came from Cotham School and were found in a collection of obsolete resource materials which were to be thrown away. Due to this context and the nature of the images I assume a previous art teacher at the school produced the slides.

How does it make you feel? The slides interest me due to the strong sense of subjectivity within them and another person’s gaze and hands being implicit in their production and form. The slides are a small collection of just 20 images and I like to imagine the intentions of the teacher when I view the images, building a narrative around their possible use and subsequent effect. The slides also make me think about how artworks are understood, mediated and circulated and how our experience of artworks are predominantly through secondary (and in this case tertiary) resources.

What does it believe in? The slides themselves believe in education and aim to do this through artworks and, in this case, painting. The slides and their author believe in using what is at hand to aid this education, so reproductions of paintings in books and on postcards are a good stand in for the original works. The author also does not mind if surplus information is also contained within the frame, such as hands, other works, text, background table etc. The artwork, Selected Interiors, Cotham School, does not discredit the beliefs of the slides and their author but just has a different context of a future position from their original production in which to understand the images from. Within this period technology, education and art have all developed extensively since the slides production and this new context makes the slides into curious objects and artifacts.

Screen #5, St Thomas’ Sq (photograph montage)

Screen #5, St Thomas’ Sq (photograph montage) is a framed work of 60x60cm. Inside the frame there is an off white mount with five 35mm black and white photographs, each being 10x18cm. The photographs are laid out in an unsymmetrical format where by no photograph has the same distance between itself and its surrounding images in relation to the rest. This creates a montage effect where the eye cannot settle easily on one image, instead encouraging a constant movement with no clear beginning or end. The photographs depict a small oblong shaped park, which is enclosed by a fence and surrounded by buildings. In the center of the park is a screen like structure that is made from a simple frame with three central panels. The position of the photographs revolve around the object as well as moving closer and further away. It is daytime as the sunlight and its shadows are visible.

Screen #4, Milan (structure)

Screen #4, Milan (structure) is a wooden structure made from four sections each being 50cmx170 each. These sections stand up straight in a slightly arched formation (if viewed from above) supported by wooden struts at the back in the center of each panel. The two side sections have ‘L’ shaped cut outs from their inner most side, which are in turn used as the supports behind. The wood is left untreated and the grain is visible. On the front of the two central panels is a printed motif. This is formed of two overlapping oblong shapes that are produced with a dark blue ink. The print is made up of tiny cross-hatched squares which resemble a thick weave. The prints are of varying density with the first layer being lighter and the second heavier, but the two panels do not match exactly.