Art Fair
Photo London 2017
18 May 2017 – 21 May 2017
Somerset House
London, United Kingdom
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Mat Collishaw: Thresholds
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Courtesy of National Media Museum, Bradford
Exhibition
Mat Collishaw: Thresholds
18 May 2017 – 11 Jun 2017
Regular hours
- Thursday
- 11:00 – 20:00
- Friday
- 11:00 – 20:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Monday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 11:00 – 20:00
Cost of entry
£4.50 / £3.50 Conc
Tickets for Photo London must be booked seperately
Address
- Strand
- WC2R 1LA
- London
- WC2R 1LA
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 23, 77a, 91 and 176, while the River Bus Service can be taken to Embankment and Savoy Piers.
- Temple, Covent Garden, Charing Cross and Embankment.
- Charing Cross, Waterloo and Blackfriars.
Event map
Go back in time to the dawn of photography with Thresholds, a new virtual reality artwork by Mat Collishaw.
About
Using the latest in VR technology, Thresholds will restage one of the earliest exhibitions of photography in 1839, when British scientist William Henry Fox Talbot first presented his photographic prints to the public at King Edward's School, Birmingham.
The experience will be a fully immersive portal to the past; walk freely throughout a digitally reconstructed room, and touch the bespoke vitrines, fixtures and moldings; even the heat from a coal fire will be recreated. A soundscape for Thresholds includes the sound of demonstrations of the Chartist protesters who rioted in 1839 on the streets of Birmingham, and who can be glimpsed through the digital windows.
The original 19th-century exhibition, staged by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, celebrated cutting edge technological innovation. Unfortunately, Fox Talbot’s original images have faded almost beyond recognition with several of the surviving photographs existing only in light-proof vaults. Thresholds not only restages an important historical exhibition but provides a way to view images that have since been lost.
Mat has worked with photographic historian Pete James; Paul Tennant from Nottingham University’s Mixed Reality Laboratory; respected authority on Fox Talbot, Larry Schaaf; Architectural Historian David Blisset; the team at VMI studios and The Whitewall Company, London.
Thresholds is presented by Somerset House and Photo London, in collaboration with Blain|Southern gallery.
