Output details

Inside:Out Deloitte Ignite 2008

With a £20,000 production phase budget this installation was commissioned by the Royal Opera House (ROH) and was one of 10 solo exhibitions by international artists (including Julian Opie, Jane and Louise Wilson, et al) curated by choreographer-in-residence, Wayne McGregor. It was part of the inaugural Deloitte Ingnite festival, 2008. Each artist was given their own space to create a new exhibition, each responding to different themes from this most famous venue that attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year.

Deepres’ work featured 12 Large scale documentary photographs, one video installation and the ROH micro-website. It entailed extensive visual research and filming over a period of four months. Production was achieved through putting together a team with film producer, Pinky Ghundale, who helped recruit the crew for, and oversaw the shooting phase.

The work was influenced by themes that drew on Deepres’ previous major body of work, ‘Patriots’ which dealt with national identity and the nature of crowds. ‘Inside:Out’ exposed hidden behind the scenes aspects of the ROH, simultaneously ‘observing’ the different types of audiences and their movements within the main areas of the building, making a symbiotic and choreographic relationship between these worlds. The work captured the identity and range of people visiting the ROH through seamless montaging and connective juxtapositions that explored different architectural settings and crowd flows within a panoramic format. It exposed the dynamics of the crowd, both in real-time and through expanding split seconds when audience members and the camera view each other, entering what appears to be a timeless subconscious connection.

Through the hypnotic video installation the ROH audience uniquely became part of the work within its spatial design and sound architecture. In this resect it conceptually re-interpreted a documentary approach within a fine art context.