SCANNERS l and ll (2010)
Articulate Project Space, Leichhardt.

The Scanners are two 'interactive' objects that were exhibited in a group show at Articulate Project Space, Sydney. Previously a smash repair workshop, the gallery still retains many of the original architectural features and each artist in the show sought in some way to work with the specifics of the architectural space.

In my work, the two scanner objects are designed to reveal an aspect of the building's past. Each scanner displays video footage recorded on site that shows images of the rough concrete ceiling in the basement below the gallery space. This ceiling bears the imprint of the original timber floorboards, which served as formwork when the building was renovated.

As the camera tracks over the surface it creates the impression of a landscape as if seen from a surveillance plane, or perhaps the pictures beamed back by a remotely controlled moon rover or a bomb disposal robot.

Viewers are invited to take the Scanners for a spin, wheeling them around the new floor of the gallery, while with a kind of x-ray vision, they see traces of the older floorboards underneath.