Films projected from the gallery window into a wooden box suspended in the void. Photo: Jo Newman
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On the left is the wide campus concourse. The brick building on the right is the gallery. A small bridge can be seen between them and the window onto the void. Photo: 'Essex Live'
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This was a method I invented to have films playing outside the 'Art Exchange Gallery, University of Essex', It was a technique that advertised the show to the large passing trade of students. The University of Essex is unusual in that it has an art gallery but no art students. The majority of the students do subjects that are not directly related to art and at the time many of them had no idea the gallery existed. It was a common assumption that the gallery was part of the book shop next door which shares the access.
​The large window on the right (blacked out in this image) gave access to one anchor point for the suspension cable. The other end of the cable was fixed to the guard rail/fence on the left. The box was suspended between these two points. Photo: 'Essex Live'
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The image was back projected from the gallery window exactly into a 4:3 wooden crate suspended in the void. Most of the artwork in the show 'Offer Must End Soon!' was made with old boxes. The crate matched the aesthetic of the exhibition. On the right of the crate can be seen the black speaker horn for the music that accompanied each film. Photo: Jo Newman
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The campus is built on concrete columns with an access road underneath. Although it looks like a one story building from the front, the gallery is actually a four story building with a bridge from the main campus concourse to allow access to the top floor where the gallery is situated. Consequently just outside the door of the gallery is a long drop down to ground level. The films were shown in this void.
The film playing in the box is documention of 'How we won the war' a piece that was actually in the gallery. The red building is a Portakabin below at ground level. Photo: Jo Newman
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Early experiments with the void. A black car can be seen at ground level for scale. Photo: Jo Newman
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Playing films outside the gallery was slightly ironic in that there were no films actually playing inside the gallery. This was something that was counter to most contemporary art exhibitions at the time which always seemed to have a video playing somewhere.
Window of 'Art Exchange gallery'. The projector, amplifier and DVD player were all positioned here. Photo: Jo Newman
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All the equipment was carried on a collection of toy lorries and cranes. In this image the dvd player sits on two 'Matchbox' trucks. Photo: Jo Newman
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A toy crane holds the projector at the right angle to line it up with the box/screen suspended outside the window. Photo: Jo Newman
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View from the gallery window across the void to the box hanging outside. Photo: Jo Newman
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Toy crane in the window with real crane and construction site in the distance. Photo: Jo Newman
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 Photo: David Thomson
The use of the toy cranes and trucks had a dual purpose. They were in keeping with the rest of the exhibition which used various toy vehicles but also referenced what was going on immediately outside the gallery 'in the real world!' At the time the university campus was in the middle of major construction work and a large crane could be seen from the window. The toy crane was also visible to passers by including the construction workers who found it highly amusing.
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Photo: Jo Newman
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A small personal detail also in the window was this Scalextrix spectator camera man. He's just got out of his car to film everything. All the films shown outside were of kinetic sculptures I made that use music. A couple of them were actually in the show. The films were made by my friend Ron Suffield. Consequently I always affectionately refer to this figure as 'Ron'.
Below are the films by Ron Suffield that were projected from the window into the void outside 'Art Exchange gallery'. |
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'Stop Me and Buy one (if you can)' (2mins. 45secs)
'Cold War Monument'
(44secs) |
'Europa. Hoek van Holland to Vladivostok.' (3min. 33secs)
'Big Country'
(3min. 1sec) |
'Wagon Wheels (Keep on Rolling)' (3mins. 35secs)
'The Rudder and the Rock'
(3mins. 3secs) |
'How We Won The War'
(4mins. 34secs) 'Siberia'
(4mins. 27secs) |