This project was initially conceived prior to the UWA Studio 310 and Phoenix Gallery models but wasn’t undertaken until March and April 2020. The risk of being prohibited from using my studio in the Covid-19 crisis prompted the start of the work, and then undertaking it while social distancing and in effective self-isolation via the nation-wide lockdown, gave another layer of significance to the act of undertaking this solitary work to make a replica of my physical workspace. My world had shrunk to my home and the studio (and the five-minute drive between the two), and all my professional and personal interactions (beyond my household) were via mediated technology, bringing us virtually into each other’s homes.
In this context I built a physical “virtual” version of one of my two “real” worlds, understanding more and celebrating the material nature of this precious space. I needed to be more acutely aware of my own bodily presence and actions in the studio, ensuring that in the act of working in this space I couldn’t contribute to a worsening of the pandemic. My work making the model, and the ever-changing views of, and activities within, the exterior spaces beyond the studio, was recorded by two video cameras positioned perpendicularly, covering my workspace of plan-chest and table.
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