ESTATE

Estate was commissioned by Oldham Art Gallery and it consisted of an installation and a book work. I liked the idea of making two completely different things. The book being a small intimate object, produced in multiple and lasting beyond the exhibition and the installation, a large temporary structure.

The book is a collection of sixteen house drawings, screen printed in up to three colours. I made hand drawn separation artwork directly on to film. The drawings are of houses imagined in different scenarios, floating in the clouds, trapped like fossils in geological strata, piled high in heaps.

The installation is the realisation of one of these drawings. It consisted of 300 white plaster house forms (30x30x10 cm) packed tightly in a random fashion on a large low platform. The gallery was dark with just two blue spotlights trained on the houses. The lights produced strong shadows which seemed to have more substance than the white ghostly houses, the shadows appearing to change form as you walked around the room.

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© John Dilnot 2024