Amy and Oliver Thomas - Irvine : RROYA

About

Castor Projects are pleased to present RROYA, a solo show by Amy and Oliver Thomas – Irvine.

RROYA brings together a series of works made in response to the forensics of space, architecture and object. Thomas – Irvine have revisited a series of images and videos capturing an abandoned mining town they discovered in Peñarroya - Pueblonuevo, Southern Spain. The heavily saturated images created by a failing printer are presented here within large format light boxes, which shroud the prints in a haze of industrial plastic. The resulting images look forever caught in motion, slightly abstracted, becoming more about the experience of looking and the ambiguity of the depicted site rather than it’s factual content.

The time spent exploring the site in Peñarroya initiated a new way of exploring an emerging interest in their work with ‘Forensic Architecture’: a form of archaeology that is commonly used to analyse the impacts of urban warfare for clues about the crimes that were perpetrated there. Following Thomas – Irvine’s relocation to Cornwall these concerns became more prevalent in how they work with sites, this time with the decommissioned mines of their new home county. This interest in Forensics of space and architecture came as a result of the aftermaths from their previous live events and constructed scenarios.

The sheer desolation and scarred earth of these British post-industrious sites form the stimuli behind the sculptural works. These pieces, the result of working in a way that directly references the forensics of the space, a fascination with the contemporary uses and misuses of all of the abandoned sites and the unease of objects. Shafts used as weapon stores, shelters used as squats, mines used as dumping grounds, a ruinous town turned into a training ground for warfare. 

Private View - Friday 29 April, 6 - 9pm