MUSEUM CLAUSUM COLLECTION | 1999 - 2008
These images were part of the first 'Museum Clausum Collection'. The prints were fitted into various second-hand picture frames, which where stained uniformly black. To emphasise the assumed institutional appearance, the Museum Clausum logo (which was initially designed for the 'Museum Clausum Deptford' installation) was engraved on brass labels attached to the top of each frame. Another brass label at the bottom shows the image title, which refers to the time and the place of the taking of the photograph.Adopting the long tradition of attaching brass labels to the frames of paintings (and other objects) in museum collections emphasises the object character of the framed works. Each framed print becomes a unique object and the overall result is a collection of unique artefacts in itself. The images themselves have been photographed in different museums over several years in the same style as described in the introduction to the 'Temporarily Removed' series: An analogue 35mm camera, a long tele-photo lens with a large maximum aperture resulting in a very narrow depth of field and a high speed negative film producing very grainy images. I make a point to describe these technical details because the sum of these is what creates the somewhat artificial and poetic aesthetic between crisp detail and soft focus that nevertheless is 'purely' photographic in its origin. Including visitor presence in the images, even if only as shadows or silhouettes, emphasises the photographic moment, the image shows a 'scene' caught of the flow of time that is in contrast to the static exhibits. All in all, the visual poetry of the images can be seen to match the poetry of display inherent in all museum presentations of artefacts.