Kathryn Campbell Dodd and Jacob Whittaker
Absent But Not Forgotten
19th March - 4th April
Belief in the paranormal can be controversial; but there is a strong
human desire to find pattern and meaning in the unexplained. Absent
But Not Forgotten uses video and sound experiments, textiles and technical
objects to evoke the world of ‘ghost hunting’. The project
considers the associations, clichés and influences of TV and
films on the phenomenon.
“The idea for this project came about on a drive from west Wales
to Bristol. I was working with the idea that I wanted to use an old
armchair that Jake had previously given me to make a kind of ghostly
telephone/chair hybrid object. At this point Jake began to relate the
tale of his Grandfather, Bernard Jones, an inventor who had experimented
with EVP techniques to make a telephone to speak with the dead. Just
to seal the deal, we spent some of the journey driving on the M4 motorway
alongside the black hearse used by Ghostwatch Wales.” Kathryn
"Aspects of the exhibition are loosely based on some of my Grandfather’s
research into EVP. As an electrical engineer and inventor he was convinced
he could make a telephone that would communicate with 'the other side'.
Oddly enough, he, like me, had a barn full of semi-working and broken
Hifi and TV - interesting that we both share a fascination with what
might be found in the broken, silent or noisy portions of recorded media."
Bernard left a lockup full of electronic bits and pieces and furniture
when he died, some of which Jacob has inherited. The equipment and objects
may well have been part of Bernard’s investigations and their
presence in the gallery aims to rekindle those resonances.
"I remember as a kid, whenever we visited my grandparents, Bernard
would take great interest in whatever electronic game or gadget us kids
were playing with that week... once taking apart a light up Yo-Yo, much
to my annoyance, in order to see and explain how the motion was switching
the light on...I’m sure the technologies available now would have
interested and excited his 'Giant Brain' " Jacob.
This exhibition is for Bernard
www.absent-but-not-forgotten.co.uk