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University Campus Suffolk   2006/2007

Linda Theophilus

I began my AA2A placement at Suffolk College by making a series of pinhole cameras, culminating in a series of objects called ‘If you had seen what I have seen’ using old furniture converted to pinhole cameras. The series includes a camera obscura made from a wardrobe. The viewer is able to peer in through an observation hole in the side, to see the image formed through the keyhole, to see what the furniture is ‘seeing’.

This initial project led to a wider consideration of observation of all kinds in current society. ‘Car Watching’ (August 2007) is a new work made for the exhibition ’Outside’ at Cuckoo Farm Studios where I now have a studio. I drew on recollections of my parents, who in the 1930s when heavy traffic was rare, would go on a Sunday afternoon to watch ‘all the cars on the A12’ The growing concerns around the consumption of fossil fuels and our individual carbon footprint may lead to ‘car watching’ again becoming a hobby with all the paraphernalia and facilities of bird-watching.

I continue to make small assemblages using personal accessories and domestic bric-a-brac sourced from charity shops, that deal with our aspirations and dreams, the tensions between our public personas and our inner lives. I also make site specific installations.