Title: Lean
Date: 2014
Materials: Digital hologram and shuttered theatrical spotlight
Size: Hologram H 25.4 x W 20.32cm (10 x 8 inches)
Installation: Gallery floor/wall
Notes: First show in Drawology, Lanchester Gallery, Coventry University, UK.
Mon 26 September - 26 October 2014.
This is the first time Pepper has used a digital holographic production process. The 'image/object' within the holographic plate existed, initially, as a series of 'points' within an online 'cloud' 3-D model system.
The resulting physical hologram, on plastic, was produced as a 'test' towards the end of 2013. A way for Pepper to begin to explore the digital process and locate a 'space' and production method which reflected his earlier spatial 'drawings'.
It reiterated some of the hand-drawn works produced in the late 1980's and early 90's, being made up of multiple, individual, points of lights (which in the digital version are 'hogels' - the equivalent of holographic 'pixels'). There is a direct connection between this digital work and Point Addition, an earlier work using much larger points of light separated into five distinct levels in space.
Like many of Pepper's works, they 'sit' in the studio for long periods before being incorporated into installations, and it was not until the summer of 2014 that this first digital experiment became one of the key elements within the 'Lean' installation.
During the Summer Lodge research residency (an annual event at Nottingham Trent University), Pepper had an opportunity to work with large gallery/workshop spaces incorporating theatrical lighting, and it was during this research in July, that the combination of positioning, lighting and angled display was formulated.
Lean was shown for the first time in Drawology at the Lanchester Gallery, Coventry University, UK.
An act of spontaneous placement, propped up 'on the way' to the gallery wall, yet installed with conviction. The marks become framed by their location and the rectangle of light which makes the work visible.