CONTEXTUAL STATEMENT

Blackpool examines the processes of latex prop making and museum sensibilities within the context of Doctor Who during the 70s and 80s. It is a series of sculptural works presented in a photographic form. 

The work revisits designs and practices of BBC Visual FX Makers such as Mat Irvine, Colin Mapson, Neill Gorton, and Mike Tucker. The heads I have recreated based on these designs are of creatures and characters from that BBC department. After they had been filmed for television, many props were often repurposed or discarded. They occasionally fell in the hands of private collectors, but several went on public display. The fate of many of the original props is a wonderful example of the preservation, or lack of, pop-cultural artifacts when in the hands of private collectors or museum collections.

This visual arts project did not start out this way. It was originally exploring Warm Emptiness, the idea that a space could be visually warm but have a certain coldness or sinister nature. Whilst looking at examples of this in film and television, I was reminded of a small museum I had seen some images of titled The Doctor Who Exhibition in Blackpool. It effectively served as a storage facility for a lot of props and costumes but was staged in an atmospheric experience. It ran from 1974-1985. Recently this Exhibition has become more publicised, with two books being released on the subject Blackpool Remembered and Blackpool Revisited.

I became interested in the sculptural process involved in making the original props. When we think of the technology we have today, it's easy to scoff at the futuristic vision that Doctor Who and other older sci-fi had for us. We come from a digital way of thinking, something that is not only reflected in our new vision of the future, but the way it is created for film and television. Productions no longer rely on elaborate masks, giant animatronics, or highly detailed models to create their worlds. A lot of what was once physical can now be produced digitally, the process involved in creating the image has changed, something that has also changed in photography. These analogue practices should have become redundant in this digital age and yet they persist. Could this be due to a desire for a tangible item? Could it be because we know when we are seeing something physically there and when we know it's artificial? 

There was a unique type of photography of these props as well. It was not like the type of image made by a unit stills photographer in a cinematic context. The Doctor Who Exhibition, though heavily documented, was documented by fans. Often, plastic lens cameras like Instamatics or even disposable cameras were used, and occasionally polaroid cameras. This combined with the dim coloured lighting resulted in a unique series of images. Though these props were always made to be seen through a lens, the intention would not have been through the direction of the amateur photographer. Interestingly though, the images that came out of the Doctor Who Exhibition often gave the props more life than their television depictions. This could have been because of the raw and almost candid-looking images that resulted. I wanted to explore what made those images have this effect, again through recreation and emulation.