Sleight - Clare Strand · shown and once again poses the questions central to the theme of Sleight, what is visible and what is hidden. Skirts celebrate the absurdity in social and

Brancolini Grimaldi

43–44 Albemarle StreetLondon W1S 4JJ United Kingdom

+44 (0)20 7493 [email protected]

Sleight

Clare Strand Exhibition: 27 May – 2 July

Brancolini Grimaldi



For her first solo exhibition, in the UK, contemporary British image maker Clare Strand presents her two newest bodies of work at Brancolini Grimaldi.

‘Strand is extremely interesting; it’s frustrating to be able to see only tidbits of bigger projects. With luck, this exhibition will give her the opportunity to reverse the magic process, and make more of her work appear.’ Nina Caplan, Time Out (07.06.11)

Clare Strand’s images are conceived, researched, developed and resolved from within a highly un-usual and personal sensibility, using a clear and decisive method of production. She belongs to the everyday, yet her images evoke the mesmeric, the talismanic and the unsolvable. Solutions propos-ing the ordinary reveal further layers of complexity and configure problems as yet un-glimpsed. The hinterland to her image making is provided by a childhood upbringing where a family life in a subur-ban cul-de-sac was confounded by true crime magazines, ominous supernatural events, Paul Dan-iels on Sunday evenings, a father obsessed by exactitude and a flasher who lived across the road.

Areas of subject matter dominate her work – photography and film the mediums by which it is mapped. Strand is interested by imagery where aesthetics are secondary to their function. Taking inspiration from forensic imagery, instruction manuals, the conventions of signage, the mechanics of spirit photography and photography employed to offer evidence of an event or a task. Her work treads the uncertain boundaries between the expected and the absurd.

Comprising of ten vernacular works displayed in a cabinet, Ten Least Most Wanted features ten im-ages carefully selected by the artist from her reference scrapbooks to make up a coherent series. Strand then confounds the coherence of the series by turning the pictures over to display the im-ages’ reverse side. It is these unchosen, serendipitous images, sometimes just mere fragments, which become the exhibited material.

‘10 Least Most wanted comprises of 10 works within a bespoke cabinet. It was crucial right from the beginning that the sides of the selected (recto) and the de-selected (verso) image should be available or at least appear to be available to the viewer. Therefore I used a clear acrylic process that encased the image (s). The notion of showing the imagery fragments that were not selected as the ultimate exhibit seemed a suitably perverse act. Further slanting the pieces at an 8 degree angle within the cabinet goads the viewer to bend and try and glimpse the 10 most wanted. The angle is just right it’s just enough to think you can see.....but you cant. ‘ Eyemazing, interview with Artist. (03.06.11)

‘Ten Least Most Wanted is a selection of the artist’s favorite cuttings from her research scrapbooks. She has encased these in clear acrylic and displayed them in the reverse. The fragmented results, which gives a glimpse of the newsprint and pictures on the paper’s other side, manipulates thefavored images original form and the snatches of writing provide accidental wit.’ Matilda Battersby, The Independent (25.05.11)

Brancolini Grimaldi



Skirts, a new black and white typology, depicts a series of dressed tables. They allude to what is not shown and once again poses the questions central to the theme of Sleight, what is visible and what is hidden. Skirts celebrate the absurdity in social and photographic conventions and the intrigue of the banal. Both Skirts and 10 Least Most Wanted bring a further sculptural quality to Strand’s practice.

Alongside these new bodies of work, Brancolini Grimaldi are showcasing selected photographs and moving image from Strand’s extensive oeuvre, all of which with references ranging from the precision and exactitude of the early-twentieth century Time and Motion Studies to pseudo-scientific ’new age’ imagery . In all of these works, the usually descriptive becomes a vehicle for mischief, magic and the supernatural.

‘For the ‘Cyclegraph’ images - eerie streaks of light that jump out of profound blackness - Strand strapped lights to her hands (a reference to an early twentieth-century photographic experiment to improve worker efficiency), then photographed herself taking photographs. Like much of her work, the results have intellectual weight and aesthetic lightness: they look good even if you know nothing about them.’ Nina Caplan, Time Out (07.06.11)

Artist Biography

Clare Strand was born in 1973. In 2009 she had her first major solo show, Clare Strand Photography and Video, at the Folkwang Museum, Essen Germany. Strands monograph published by Steidl and Photoworks was also launched including texts by David Chandler, Ian Jeffrey and Ute Eskildsen. She has exhibited in venues including Tate Britain; The Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam; Teatro Fernan-Gomez Arts Center, Madrid and The Photographers’ gallery, London. Her work has been showcased in numerous publications including Aperture, Vitamin Ph New Per-spectives in Photography, Portfolio and Photoworks magazine. Strands series Signs of a Struggle, is currently being purchased by The Victoria and Albert Museum and Aerial Suspension, Girl in two Halves and The appearing Woman have been recently purchased for the Arts Council Collection. Strands work is also in the collection of the British Council Collection and The National Media Mu-seum. Strand will be exhibiting this year at The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Courtauld Institute and The Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art.

Brancolini Grimaldi

Clare Strand | SleightExhibition: 27 May – 2 July

Installation shots

Brancolini Grimaldi

Brancolini Grimaldi

Brancolini Grimaldi

Brancolini Grimaldi

Clare Strand | SleightExhibition: 27 May – 2 July

Cyclegraph 9: Camera Shutter Release Activated (right hand)

fibre based lambda print40 x 50”edition of 5

Cyclegraph 8: Focus Pull (anticlockwise and clockwise)


Cyclegraph10: Film Advance (left to right)


Brancolini Grimaldi

Skirts (1-1.9)

fibre based bromide prints30 x 24 cm edition of 5

Gone Astray Detail


Kirlian Study - Breath


Kirlian Study - Tred


Brancolini Grimaldi

Girl in Two Halvesfibre based lambda print50 x 40”edition of 5

Aerial Suspension


Ten Least Most Wanted

Mahogny and acrylic cabinet containing 10 double-sided acrylic encapsulated lithographic images.

305 x 54.5 x 109 cm

Kirlian Study - Hairfibre based lambda print40 x 30”edition of 5

Brancolini Grimaldi

Egg From Mouth, 2009

Looped monochrome moving photograph (DVD)

Edition of 3

Head Turner, 2009


Edition of 3

Brain Floss, 2009


Edition of 3

Mouth Streamer, 2009


Edition of 3

Brancolini Grimaldi

Ten Least Most Wanted — detail images

�2�3

Clare S

trand an

d I have m

et regularly for m

any years to discuss h

er work an

d my ow

n research

es into P

ho

tography. W

e have exp

lored m

uch comm

on ground in id

entifyin

g and

celebratin

g utilitarian aspects o

f the m

edium

. T

he in

terview for th

is book seem

ed an excellent

opp

ortunity to m

ake an assessmen

t of w

here

she foun

d herself as th

e first m

ajor collection o

f her visual w

ork was p

ublish

ed.

What sort of a photographer are you? Subject

matter has alw

ays been the centre of my practice.

I wouldn’t bother if I didn’t have a subject. I am

not driven to take photographs for the sake of taking photographs. I take in inform

ation from

my everyday life; it circulates and is refi

ned before em

erging as an idea for a project. Each piece of

work determ

ines what w

orking methods I adopt,

but the core elements of this process still rem

ain.

I have a subject and when I determ

ine its relationship to photography I start m

aking work.

I have always found it helpful to understand how

I can use photography through an appreciation of utilitarian im

ages. Consequently, all m

y work is

about the nature of the medium

of photography, its uses and its lim

itations. I like to operate within

opposites – the extraordinary versus the ordinary, the factual as opposed to the unreal and the com

edic offset by the serious.

In previous interview

s you have stressed the im

portance of preparing yourself by exploring the context of a subject or proposition

. Can you

reflect on your attitude to the role that research

plays in the photographic project? It’s utterly serendipitous, I see som

ething and seize it. It can com

e from anyw

here. Then I take it to chew

over. I am

always looking around to see w

hat could be brought into m

y work. I gather in all inform

ation then a section of it starts m

aking sense to me.

Not all research contributes to the outcom

e. It’s m

ore like throwing everything into a pot to

see what rises to the top. It is an innate process

for me and I like the sense of hidden order – and

the sense of intuition and haphazardness.

I have a collection of images that I have kept

with m

e from early on that consistently inform

s my practice. I have particular favourites such as

the silhouettes of the murders carried out at the

Tate R

esidence by the Manson Fam

ily. They are

non-photographs – that’s why I like them

. There

is something there that, even now

, I don’t particularly understand. T

here is a sort of uselessness in desperately trying to get photography to prove som

ething. There is also

a gap between the prom

ise of these photographs and reality. It is, for m

e, also a type of Absurdism

.

Sometim

es I get the feeling that some of your

work reflects narratives from

your past. What

is your earliest mem

ory? We w

ere living in West

Kingsdow

n, in a house in a cul-de-sac. There w

as a little girl I m

et who w

as older than me. She used

to put sweets dow

n her socks – those jelly snakes. When I w

as three we m

oved to Sanderstead, which w

as another house in a cul-de-sac. I’m really

keen on the psychology of the cul-de-sac; going in, going round, and com

ing out again – all to no great purpose. C

ul-de-sacs have an underlying notion of protection, unlike living on a m

ain road where you are easily identified as being on a m

ain route and you can’t hide aw

ay.

What do you rem

ember of that tim

e, when you

were the sam

e age as many of the figures you

now u

se in your work? L

ooking back I remem

ber a distinctive, tangible sense of place - an identity and a taste alm

ost. My school w

as set in woodland,

we w

ere always being told to w

atch out for danger and alw

ays to walk in pairs. It felt om

inous. My

street was also odd. T

here were individual

inhabitants far beyond the ordinary – a flasher living directly opposite w

ho would expose him

self out of his bedroom

window

and a detective who

once keenly showed m

e his collection of violent forensic photographs. H

e had a collection of images of a m

an who had com

mitted suicide in his

bathroom. The im

ages were garish in colour w

ith arterial spray on the w

alls and a body slumped in

the corner. What struck m

e immediately w

as the intense clash of the extraordinary and the ordinary. T

he everyday paraphernalia of the bathroom

was still intact – the sham

poo, bubble bath and talc still lined up on the side of the bath. The tow

els were neatly hung up and the bathroom

bin needed to be em

ptied. Something appalling

Interview

Clare Strand in conversation w

ith Chris M

ullen, Brighton, M

arch 2008

Crim

e – CR

. 11. Manson M

urders. C

ollection of Clare Strand.

Clare Strand and Lisa A

khurst, Lisa’s B

edroom, 1-6, 1987 (O

pposite)

�4�5

Markings O

n Photographs – M. 23-58.

Collection of C

lare Strand.

�6��

Henry M

ayhew’s sm

all text about street photographers in London Labour and the London Poor, w

here he talks about photographers using the painted circus tents as m

aterial for backdrops, that helped to start form

the idea for the Portraits. I w

as also keen to explore the relationship and tensions betw

een the countryside and the City.

Yet I sense the subject m

atter of the project contain

s elements beyond the tangible, and

doesn’t exactly seek to exert a social critique. Is that so? I w

as walking in C

lerkenwell and a

wom

an suddenly fell to her knees, as if brought low

by some hidden subterranean force. It alerted

me to w

hat was happening underneath the hum

of the pavem

ent, the tunnels and channels – what

is there and what is not there? I follow

ed ideas of m

agic and the supernatural in the City, such

as Peter Ackroyd’s T

he House of D

octor Dee (1993)

and above all, Haw

ksmoor (1986). It w

as a fusion of intuition, observation and reading that allow

ed G

one Astray D

etails to emerge, fi

ltering conventional research through m

y own

experiences via the photographic language of the instructional com

bined with the docum

entary.

The individu

al portraits express what you have

called a ‘general characterisation’. What do you

mean by this? E

ach character is a constructed ‘type’, cast as you w

ould actors, with sim

ilarly carefully selected props. T

hey are types of people I w

ould expect to find on any urban street. If they

weren’t there, I’d w

ant to know why not. T

hat is why I used the D

ickens quote from G

one Astray

as he talks about double lives, about people pretending, colluding w

ith the theatrical element

of the street. Many tim

es I have mom

ents wondering if people have been placed on the

streets from central casting – as their being there

is too expected, too clichéd. I am also interested

in the small clues such as a T

iffany necklace or a

teenage stoop that can express prowess or status.

Do your im

ages do things you never anticipated after they are first show

n? I’m alw

ays working

to my ow

n set of rules. Some rules are m

ore obvious than others. A

fter the images are m

ade, you let them

go into the world and, after that,

had happened and nothing would be the sam

e again for those involved, but still the ordinariness of the everyday hom

e remained to outlive its

inhabitant. I think that this experience was

behind The M

ortuary work (1994–1995) w

here my focus w

as on the utensils and receptacles rather than on the individual. A

gain, I seek that middle ground betw

een the extraordinary and the ordinary.

How

did your interest in Paranorm

al and Crim

e photography com

e about? On m

y occasional visits to Sanderstead L

ibrary I would hone in on

the paranormal and true crim

e section. There I

learnt about young wom

en like Mary B

ell and Lizzie B

orden, as well as the E

nfield poltergeist

manifestations as show

cased in Arthur C

Clarke’s

World of Strange Pow

ers. I really do believe that what gets you in adolescent life rem

ains with you

forever. That’s w

hy I was keen to include the Lisa’s

Bedroom

polaroids in this book, taken when I w

as about fourteen. I like the w

ay they connect not only w

ith my Spice G

irl series (1996) and Gone

Astray Portraits (20

01–2002) but also the E

nfield

girls’ bedrooms.

You have spoken in the past about the significance of adolescent an

xieties. In the light of your subsequent interests, w

ere you yourself telekinetic, or prey to the supernatural? W

hen I was in m

y early teens I experimented to try and

move and levitate things – just in case I could, but

nothing happened. I was utterly taken w

ith the idea of girls being open to paranorm

al happenings – I also enjoyed reading about young w

omen that

had managed to fool investigative team

s by

banging on radiators or by voice manipulations.

Films such as T

he Watcher In T

he Wood, C

arrie, T

he Exorcist, Fire Starter, etc. all encouraged

my early experim

ents. I also enjoyed reading the Fortean T

imes and w

atching Record B

reakers (in particular the girl w

ho held the record for not being able to stop sneezing), and R

ipley’s B

elieve it or Not.

I have sometim

es teased you about a suspected

fear of colour photography. What choices do you

make w

hen you select black and white

photography? After graduating from

the Royal

College of A

rt, I started making w

ork in black and w

hite, in reaction to the photographic climate

of the time. C

olour work started to m

ake me feel

claustrophobic - it was too busy and I felt the need

to find a new

working space. U

sing black and white

offers m

e clarity. It also brings me nearer to the

utilitarian images I adm

ire the most. For m

e, black and w

hite strips down the elem

ents – it helps m

e be more decisive and off

ers the dram

a/non-drama and the am

biguity I am

looking for in an image.

Gone A

stray was a m

ajor threshold for you. I

always thou

ght it was a sign that you w

ere taking this m

edium seriou

sly as a mode of

expression for the future. Gone A

stray was the

culmination of a year’s fellow

ship at the London

College of P

rinting (now LCC). I took this as an

opportunity to research certain aspects of the City. I w

as intrigued by urban critics, such as Dickens (w

hose essay in 1853 on his being lost as a child in the C

ity, gave the project its name),

William

Morris and W

illiam Blake. B

ut it was

I have little idea of what people m

ake of them.

I enjoy following the clues of a m

ystery, but when

the mysteries appear solved, the im

age becomes

less and less interesting to me. T

he question is alw

ays ‘how much to give aw

ay to the viewer?’

It is possible to explain the image aw

ay and allow

viewers no space for their ow

n interpretation. Even now

, there are issues throughout my w

ork that I w

ant to leave ‘unsolved’.

Can you talk about how

this relates to Signs

of a Struggle? Signs of a Struggle w

as a com

missioned response to the N

ew Tow

n concept on its 50th anniversary. I started the project by asking w

hat New

Tow

ns meant to

me in particular. I w

anted to leave the frame

of reference open. The fi

nal images w

ere either contem

porary constructions of invented narratives or, alternatively, authentic im

ages discovered in their folders in an archive. T

he work is about U

topia, the problems of idealism

and im

perfection. It is a commission, like m

ost

Paranormal – PA

. 7. Enfield Poltergeist. C


Gone A

stray – GA

. 7. C


Forensic Arrow

Collection – 1/25.

Collection of C

lare Strand.

��

of my recent w

ork, which has enabled m

e to find

my ow

n system within a given proposition.

You like to find your own voice w

ithin the com

mission rather than feel bound by its

constraints. I used Signs of a Struggle as a sort

of bedrock for constructing a set of images about

the nature of human w

ishes or the need to perfect. Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist play Les T

uers Sans G

ages (1957) was a useful point of departure, an

expression of a Utopia w

here the celebrants of the perfection of living deny that aw

ful events are occurring on a daily basis. Ionesco, incidentally, mentions a photograph in the play used by the

murderer to distract his victim

. Signs of a Struggle bears reference to the crim

e images that I have

kept on file and in m

y mem

ory. This and m

any of m

y other works are partly a com

ment on the

vanity of the quest for order. The project w

orks well in this w

ay, as each image and the com

bined text is suspended in a state of oscillation betw

een potential readings.

What other im

ages do you find are peculiarly charged, that rem

ain on file, or inside your

imagination? I am

drawn to im

ages that contain visual codes appearing to explain but w

hich actually don’t really help at all. A

n intervening arrow

or a trajectory of dotted lines can make

an image so m

uch more exciting. I love R

obert Groden’s book T

he Killing of a P

resident (1993), a picture anthology about the K

ennedy assassination and the W

arren Report (1964)

where m

ore detail seems to lead to greater

confusion. I find the im

agery of Rosa K

uleshova

extraordinary as well as the portrait of E

leanor Zugan, show

ing the markings on flesh apparently

brought about by the paranormal. I am

particularly keen on im

agery of illusion, magic

and trickery, all of which I find innate to the

photographic medium

itself. I have bundles of publications, such as Popular M

echanics and Healthy

Living, which contain m

any a photographic gem in

ways of the instructional, such as the illustrative

hand whose presence is crucial to the aesthetic.

In C

onan Doyle’s A

Study In Scarlet, Sherlock Holm

es states that there is ‘no fear without

imagination’. W

e all have this sense of the unnerving interior, the B

ed and Breakfast foyer

as a potential scene for violent crime, perpetuated

by the artlessness of the press or crime photograph.

I was fi

xated by the photographs of the interiors of the house of Fred and R

osemary W

est. I was

especially interested in their keenness for photo-murals, hinting at the chasm

between fantasy and

reality which clearly existed.

There is alw

ays a danger of your formal

exercises being regarded as pastiche, or even parody. D

o you have any particular strategies to m

ake sure you are understood, that you are not characterised as w

himsical or satirical?

When I m

ake a body of work it is essential that

there is oscillation between the initial proposition

and its solution, otherwise there w

ould be little point in m

aking anything. The w

ork is driven by my ow

n personal response, interpretation and understanding so there w

ill always be a shift

away from

what it bears reference to. A

lso, though there are visual sim

ilarities to the sourced material, I am

making new

bodies of work w

ith a diff

erent intent and context. This in itself sets

the agenda apart. I am working to m

y own rules.

I recognise the danger of being w

himsical.

I work on a fi

ne line between m

y own intentions

and softer readings by the audience, over which

I have no control. I just have to live with that.

Can you explain here how

The B

etterment

Room

project fits in this sequence? I was asked

to make a body of w

ork on the theme of ‘w

ork’ in modern society. T

he Betterm

ent Room

–Devices for

Measuring A

chievement, to give the project its full

Paranormal – PA

. 13. Rosa Kuleshova. C


Healthy Living C

atalogue Collection. 1/87.

Collection of C

lare Strand.

title, takes as a starting point Frank and Lillian

Gilbreths’ attem

pts in America, in the fi

rst part of the tw

entieth century, to make perfectible

the constituent elements of w

ork. The G

ilbreths were the fi

rst to use photography for the measurem

ent and enhancement of com

mercial

endeavour, to measure units of tim

e and motion

for the ‘betterment’ of the w

orker. In their laboratory, m

ini-lights were attached to the

workers’ hands and, through the use of long

shutter speeds, they would analyse the

trajectories of the workers’ m

ovement.

For this project I w

anted to acknowledge

how our attitudes have changed tow

ards work – how

manual labour, such as grading

tomatoes and sorting w

ashers (as studied by the G

ilbreths), has been displaced by other, more m

ysterious, activity. I became interested

in the intangibility of work, seeking w

ays to express this through photography.

My w

ay of synthesising all this was to apply

my visual system

to claims m

ade today by Healthy

Living catalogues, which are w

idely distributed as direct m

ail in the UK. The catalogues have

fascinating instructional codes of visual language used to describe the claim

s made of the objects.

They propose that the advertised products are a

sure key to a better life, to individual fulfilment;

products such as the Adult-size M

eal Protector,

the amazing Slim

ming D

ress or the Deep V

ein Throm

bosis Cushion – all of w

hich I purchased for m

y figures. In those studies for The B

etterment

Room

, each person has been given an object to take into m

y remaking of the G

ilbreths’ laboratory. In contrast there is no m

ovement, no activity, just

an uneasy stasis. The apparatus of the laboratory

can be glimpsed but it is fictional and on closer

examination absurd and dislocated.

The C

yclegraph section of the project was

to be a study of my ow

n movem

ents undertaking the m

echanics of the project itself, flicking

through the Healthy Living catalogues, m

y triggering of the shutter in a cam

era as I worked.

They utilise a sim

ple self-built lighting device – nam

ed the Eralc lum

i-tracers, which w

ere strapped to m

y hands. The C

yclegraphs becomes a record

of making the w

ork, trying to evaluate my ow

n perform

ance. It is an exercise in absurdism that

nevertheless had its pre-determined function,

no matter how

pointless.

If you are hesitant about the limitation

s of the G

allery wall for im

ages you want to show

, are you interested in in

stallations? In T

he Betterm

ent R

oom exhibition I used a vitrine containing

apparent reference material. T

here was clothing

I had used in the images, the props, the catalogues,

and the apparatus to generate light from the

movem

ents of the hands. This w

as presented as my ow

n considered archive. It wasn’t intended

to make clearer, to elaborate and explain, but

to generate a spirit of play – a middle ground

between reference and installation, enhancing

the pseudo-scientific surface of the work and

adding to the mystery of the overall display.

I am interested in w

ays the project came about

as a result of oblique and mysteriou

s references rather than a con

scious proceeding from

a logical pattern of thinking. It is often thought that, to do justice to a job, you have to research long and deeply. Yet the m

ost profitable research could be, for exam

ple, the identification of a characteristic colour that sum

marises the identity

Crim

e - CR

. 17. West interior.

Collection of C

lare Strand.

100 101

Illusions/Spirit – ILL. 17-59. Collection of Clare Strand.Time And Motion – TM. 3- 47. Collection of Clare Strand.

100101

Illusions/Spirit – ILL. 17-59. C


Tim

e And M

otion – TM. 3- 47.

Collection of C

lare Strand.

102103

of a City, or one generation that dom

inates the streets, or a button-through dress or a C

harlie Chaplin film

still, that is key to an understanding. All the people in T

he Betterm

ent Room

project imply beige; a H

ealthy Living catalogue, though bright in appearance, is decidedly beige.

What is your attitu

de to the role that text plays in the contem

plation of images?

You have always enjoyed the possibilities

that open up when text encounters im

agery. You m

ake specific references within the titles

to terminology, w

hich at first glance seems

definitive (Photism

s, Cyclegraphs etc).

I like the idea that a particular group of images

can have a group of texts attached to it, however

this doesn’t necessarily mean they should provide

any definitive guidance. In Signs of a Struggle texts

were generated to accom

panying the images –

however there is no one direct application of

one to another. In tune with Ionesco’s absurdist

alignments, all texts apply to all im

ages at random

, creating a paradox within the general

anticipated result.

So you favour ‘slippage’ rather the solemn

, fixed

world of the caption and the im

posed explanation that allow

s no room for am

biguity? Slippage is a very good w

ord to describe this – yes, slippage is som

ething that I have tried to cultivate in m

y work. For instance a Photoism

is defined as a

‘synesthetic visual sensation’. How

ever once I had chosen it as m

y unit of terminology, the w

ord brought about an unintended slippage into Photography, aw

ay from the study of Perception.

In the Gilbreths’ term

inology there is a unit called a T

hereblig, their name reversed as a unit

of measurem

ent, which stim

ulated my ow

n version for the E

ralc Lumi-T

racer.

How

did you then proceed into Un

seen Agents?

I felt that my early interest in the Paranorm

al and its relationship w

ith photography had not reached its full potential. I returned to this subject after T

he Betterm

ent Room

, as both themes

share visual and historical similarities. In both

areas the camera gave gravitas to the subject due

to its ‘scientific objectivity’. Also in both cases

the camera could seem

ingly capture evidence of som

ething that couldn’t be otherwise seen.

U

nseen Agents m

akes no attempt to reach

a finite conclusion about the nature of the

paranormal or the authenticity of its im

agery. It is about the visual possibilities throw

n up by this area of practice. I choose to use the A

ura Cam

era as it embodies a belief about how

photography has been understood – a m

ysterious magic box that can capture the essence of the

sitter and bare the soul. The K

irlian process was used for the sam

e reasons. How

ever, in this process, there is direct physical contact w

ith the photographic m

aterial – proposing a visual imprint of the subject or, as in m

y photographs, their possessions.

As I said before, the paranorm

al genre had obsessed m

e since early childhood. I read the Fortean T

imes w

hen a teenager and later Charles

Forte’s book Wild T

alents (1932), about young wom

en, poltergeists, and the possession of telekinetic pow

ers. I like the way Forte w

rote a non-com

mittal celebration of the strange

ways of the w

orld and I wanted this to perm

eate my photographs.

The A

ura Polaroids were taken in a Spirit

Shop at the conventional size (5x4 inches) and in colour for ten pounds each. T

he Aura cam

era purports to bear w

itness to aura projection and the ethereal entity, decoded through the colours of the im

age. Conversely it w

as only until I drained the colour aw

ay from each of

the images that they started to m

ake sense to m

e. A coloured aura, rendered black and w

hite, seem

ed an intriguing and somew

hat perverse act,

much the sam

e as showing the m

echanics of the Kirlian process, w

ithout any pictorial outcome.

Now

that you see your work together for the first

time, w

hat have you learnt about your own

creativity and what does this im

ply for the future? It’s diffi

cult to assess logically where

things go from here, other than to keep

experimenting and to keep pushing ideas

forward, perhaps in w

ays I can’t anticipate now

. My w

ork occupies the space between the

initiation of an idea and its resolution, often developing w

ay beyond original intentions.

Major im

pulses for making w

ill remain the

same, getting im

ages out of my head and m

aking them

tangible, sorting and stripping down to

address the clutter in my m

ind, striving towards

an illusive sense of clarity and order.

It’s important for m

e to keep doing what feels

right, by taking risks rather than trying to fit into any pre-defi

ned system. This challenge w

ill alw

ays exist hand in hand with the possibilities

of abject failure.

I have invested too much in the m

edium to

abandon it totally in favour of another, but retain the right to m

ove to the periphery of what is

generally understood as Photography.

Cabinet D

etail. Eralc Lumi -Tracers.

Clare Strand, 20

05.

Installation image: The Betterm

ent Room –

Devices For M

easuring Achievem

ent, Folkw

ang Museum

, Essen, 200

5.

Girl having aura photographed. C

lare Strand 200

7.

Sleight - Clare Strand · shown and once again poses the questions central to the theme of Sleight, what is visible and what is hidden. Skirts celebrate the absurdity in social and

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