Lancaster, UK
Work 01 / 03
Year
2026
Medium
Mixed-media sculptural installation
Dimensions
Variable
Status
Active / adaptable — 18 arrangements
Installation view — arrangements spaced across the floor, yellow iteration.
Statement
This work is an experiment designed to test how the placement of objects and the relationships between them influence the viewer’s experience. By repeating the same seventeen objects in a series of different arrangements, the viewer is invited to notice how changes in position alter both the relationship between objects and their experience of the work.
The same arrangements are then repeated, this time with a change of colour to the anorak, which is the largest and most colourful object. By keeping the placement consistent, the work invites the viewer to consider how colour affects their perception of the same configuration.
The work was developed from Object-Oriented Ontology, in particular Graham Harman’s book Art and Objects, and is built around testing Harman’s claims about how aesthetic objects emerge. Changing the arrangement and colour of the objects is an attempt to invite the viewer to explore how art functions, and how they are relating to aesthetics more generally.
Colour system
Colour changes only through the anorak: blue, pink and yellow. Everything else holds constant, so one sensual property varies while the relations stay fixed.
Fixed inventory
Ten categories of object; seventeen individual components. Components may be replaced if damaged, provided the object type and its functional role are retained.
Recurring relations
Support · Containment · Obstruction · Balance · Proximity · Separation · Repetition · Enclosure · Negative space · Orientation · Contact · Dependency · Spatial tension
Documentation
Arrangement library
Eighteen active, physically tested arrangements under stable archive IDs. A01–A15 are the original written builds; A16–A18 were recovered from the studio photographs. Quoted terms are retained where they are part of the rule.
Stack the coffee cups and put all the solid objects in the coffee cup. Wrap the bottom of the cups with a shoe cover, then wrap the top of the cups in a shoe cover. Wrap the slippers individually in shoe covers and then wrap the two wrapped slippers in another shoe cover. Place the cup in the hole of the wrapped slippers. Take the anorak and wrap it around the whole sculpture, leaving the bagged cup visible through a nesting hole.
Unfold the anorak twice, then individually wrap the trophy and coaster; cups; cotton balls and shot glass; razor; and slippers. Place the trophy on top of the coaster on the right end of the anorak. To the left of that, place the cups, then the cotton balls in the shot glass upside down, then the razor, and finally the slippers at a right angle to the anorak.
Wrap the anorak tightly around the cups, making sure to leave a sizeable tail, and place both slippers upright in the cup. Place the remaining objects on the tail. Use the slippers to twist the cups and tighten the anorak around them, moving the tail in slightly.
Unravel the anorak, place the objects “randomly” across the anorak, and roll up the anorak.
No confirmed photograph
Pull the hood through the anorak to create a puffy shape. Take the shoe covers, pull out parts of the anorak to attach the shoe covers, and place the remaining objects where they seem to “feel correct.”
Create a flat spiral bed using the anorak. Take the shoe covers and pull them through an OK-hand-gesture-shaped opening, then let them sit like petals. Place the two cups upside down in the middle of the anorak and put the tips of the shoe covers under the cups so that they sit like petals. Set the coaster on top of the cups, place the shot glass in the middle of the coaster, put the trophy on top, and place the cotton balls in the trophy. Place the slippers on one corner in a V shape to look like leaves, and the razor between them as a stem.
No confirmed photograph
Stuff the anorak in the cups, and then put the cups in a slipper. Place the razor above the anorak at the top of the cup. In the other slipper, stuff all of the shoe covers into the end. Place the shot glass in the middle, attached to the trophy. Place one cotton ball inside the trophy and one on either side. Rest the trophy on the coaster and the closed mirror.
No confirmed photograph
Place all of the objects in a line as they arrive freshly unpackaged. Arrange them in height order, tallest on the left and shortest on the right. If two objects are the same height, the larger object should be to the left.
No confirmed photograph
Take all of the objects, try to hold them, then sit down and place all of the objects on the floor at once.
No confirmed photograph
Nest the shoe covers inside each other to create a five-layered shoe cover. Place the anorak in the middle. Take the trophy, cotton balls, shot glass, razor, mirror and coaster. Place them inside different layers of the shoe covers, spread out “randomly.” Take the cups and put one in each slipper, set the slippers next to each other and place the shoe-cover object on the end.
No confirmed photograph
Pull the shoe covers as they come through the handles of the trophy, alternating sides as you go. Put the cotton balls in the trophy, and place the trophy on top of the upside-down shot glass. Place the coaster two hand-widths away, place the upside-down coffee cups on top, and rest the open mirror on the coffee cups, facing the trophy. Balance the slippers on top of the coffee cups. Unfold the anorak once and balance it behind the trophy.
Take a coffee cup and place the cotton balls inside, then wrap this cup in all five shoe covers, and put this cup inside the other cup. Rest the coaster on top of the shoe cover, and put the closed mirror on top. Put the shot glass in the middle of the mirror upside down, and fit the trophy on top. Take a slipper and put the fully folded anorak in the toe, then put the end of that slipper into the toe of the other slipper. Put the coffee cups on top of the two slippers, and rest the head of the razor off the lip of the cup.
Nest the shoe covers inside each other, fold the slippers and place them at the bottom. Place the fully folded anorak inside. Take the rest of the objects, minus the cups, and place them on top of the anorak, making sure to keep all of the objects inside the shoe covers. Stack the cups, place them down correct-side up, and then put the shoe covers on top with the foot-entry hole facing up.
No confirmed photograph
Take all the objects. Place the shot glass upside down in the middle. Closest to it place the shoe covers, then the slippers, then the cotton balls going in one direction. To the side of these objects, but still centred around the shot glass, place the cups with their bottoms facing these objects. Next to the cups place the coaster. Further around from the coaster place the razor with its head facing the shot glass. Next place the closed mirror. Next place the trophy on its side, with its bottom facing the mirror and the top facing the anorak, which completes the circle around the shot glass. Objects should be placed according to colour, with greater difference from the shot glass meaning greater distance away.
Place a coffee cup upside down, put the coaster on top and place a coffee cup on top. Next to that, open the mirror, place the cotton balls inside and close the mirror. Next to that, unfold the anorak, place the trophy inside and close it. Next to that sandwich the shoe covers and razor between the two slippers. Place the shot glass to the side.
No confirmed photograph
Pinch the anorak by the hood and gently throw it upwards so that it floats to the ground. Collect the remaining objects in weight order, starting with the shoe covers. Unravel the shoe covers and float them on top from a standing position. Drop the remaining objects onto the arrangement from lightest to heaviest.
Recovered · Photograph 1
Tie the arms of the anorak around one coffee cup and twist the anorak three times. Force the second cup into the twisted arms as close to the first cup as possible while allowing both cups to remain upright. Fold and drape the body of the anorak back over the top of the two cups to form a canopy. Connect the two slippers and place them under the canopy, then place the mirror on the heel of the slippers. Rest the shot glass on top of the canopy within the cup that was wrapped first, and rest one fresh shoe cover on top of the canopy between the two cups. Unravel another shoe cover, blow into it to inflate it, and tie it closed with a fresh shoe cover. Repeat this with another shoe cover, placing the trophy inside before tying it closed. Place the empty inflated shoe cover next to the heel of the slippers outside the canopy, and place the shoe cover containing the trophy next to the slippers, further towards the toe. Next to this place the coaster with the three cotton balls on top. Finally, place the head of the razor approximately two-thirds of the way down the canopy, in the area where this action is easiest.
Recovered · Photographs 2–3
Place the anorak flat on the floor with the arms outstretched. Place the trophy in the deepest part of the hood. Place one coffee cup at the end of each arm. Place one cotton ball at each of the two points where the hood meets the arms, and place the third cotton ball in the central dip of the neckline. Position the two slippers just below the cotton balls, perpendicular to them, with the heels pointing inward. Place the razor on the right wrist of the anorak with its head pointing towards the cup. Place the open mirror on the left side where the heart would be. Place the shot glass where the belly button would be, and place the coaster at the centre of the bottom edge. Take the five fresh shoe covers and arrange them in an S-shape around the shot glass so that they suggest an intestine.
Recovered · Photographs 4–5