Against No Return
2026
public art, installation, process, unique chromogenic print
2026
public art, installation, process, unique chromogenic print
Inside the narrow chamber, photographic paper was exposed and processed without electricity, using daylight, lake water and sun-warmed chemistry.
At the centre of the work is an image I made through the Door of No Return at Elmina Castle in Ghana, where the Atlantic appears beyond the threshold through which slaves were forced onto ships during the Middle Passage. I transferred this view to a large plastic foil which I used as a negative.
I constructed the wall modules in my studio from timber battens, screwed them together on site and covered them with a thin skin of birch plywood. The structure was initially intended to be dark, but daylight passed through its walls. Rather than eliminate this completely, I reinforced most of the chamber with honeycomb panels and left one section thin-skinned, allowing daylight to enter as an exposure source.
The paper was exposed and processed in the chamber, then hung outside to dry.
Several prints were made with the same negative and allowed to deteriorate. I kept one.
For this work, I refused the public-art demand that the artist become a social function. The structure was publicly accessible, but not conceived as a space of hospitality.
Curated by Mirjam Varadinis for The Zurich Archipelago 06.06.-12.07.2026, Art in Public Space, Zürich