The installation Contact Boundary (2007) is to be shown at Greenroom, Manchester, in early October 2008. The piece was first exhibited as my final show for my HND in Fine Art, before being shown in a slightly updated form at Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax, in September and October of 2007.

Contact Boundary consists of a scaffold cube, about 2.5m in depth, in which are suspended 3 steel frames, each encasing a screen of pure wax. Onto each of these is projected video of myself, naked and contained in a box of corresponding size to each screen. Mirrors housed at the top and bottom of the piece create an illusion of a shaft rising up from, and plunging below the structure, with multiple reflections of the projection screens. The whole assembly is enclosed by wax curtains.

The choice to appear naked in this piece was not an easy one for me. I am not a man who is comfortable with nudity; I find the judgement of others hurtful. My choice to appear naked, therefore, was a deliberate choice to expose my vulnerability. I believe we live in a society where cynicism is rife, where many will attack those who dare to drop their façade, who confess to being fallible. I believe that we are all vulnerable, that because of the demands of this world we hide our vulnerability, thereby building barriers around ourselves, isolating us from others. Exposing myself in this way is an act of hope, that I may receive empathy rather than judgement, and just as other artists have touched me with their work, that I may make contact, touch others in some meaningful way.

Contact Boundary originated in a visual idea, and developed through my response to the materials and processes employed in its construction; the dialogic approach discussed on the Making Contact page. My own understanding of the piece developed through this process; though there are clear themes within the piece, its meanings are multiple, unfixed, and are open to the interpretation of viewers.