Erin Siddall

Camera Obscura Tower, steel and aluminum scaffolding, black cloth, plywood, apertures, 8x8x23 feet,  2013. 

Interior view of camera obscura and installation of structure inside of The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery shown.

Camera Obscura Tower is a camera obscura atop a three story structure made of scaffolding and plywood, which can be ascended and entered.  Multiple apertures in the camera obscura room disturb the concept of a single, fixed position of viewing.  Simple, lensless apertures project both the outside and inside views of The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, stressing the architectural supports of the institutional space and the window framed cultivated landscape of the university grounds.  This landscape also includes a view of Rodney Graham’s Millennial Time Machine, a work which also incorporates a camera obscura.   In Camera Obscura Tower, although the materials suggest temporary supports, the apparatus expands in scale, and is part of the built environment of the gallery.  The structure must be built at an uncomfortable height in order to reach the light, stressing embodiment and a view contingent on existing structures.