Topographies of the obsolete

Account of a Showroom Series

The starting point of my work is the paradox of an invisible and unavailable showroom, sealed off and left in darkness in the depths of Spode. A room that is supposed to be on show only lives on in the memories and representations of it.

An important entry into thinking about the closed off spaces at the factory as containers of fictions and images is a story about Thomas Wedgwood, one of the pioneers of photography. He was could capture an image on paper or leather but was unable to permanently fix his pictures and immediately after being taken, they had to be stored in a dark place in order not to vanish.

I think of the dark showroom as a potential space for storage of images. Impossible images because we have no access to them. Even though the closed off buildings are very real, they are also a thin shell containing fiction.

I have placed photographs on the old doors leading the way to the showroom that have now been blocked. At one door I have also placed my animated memory of the space that is now inaccessible. These gestures show the darkness of an unavailable space that would otherwise go unnoticed to visitors unfamiliar with the site and points to the negotiation of the collective memory that now constitutes a place such as Spode.