Duratran micro-photographs, stainless steel light boxes Above Bar, Southampton, 2004
Commissioned by Southampton City Council in association with Hammerson UK Properties Plc.
In The Great Scheme Of Things was a series of six circular light boxes installed in the centre of Southampton, following a route along Above Bar Street from Watts Park to Bargate. Each lightbox revealed a magnified image of the world beneath our feet. At over 400 times life-size, tiny pieces of debris became intricate objects, dirt and dust appeared polished, and fragments of glass shone jewel-like.
Many of the fragments had a poetic connection with the heritage of the site such as the micro-photograph of a marsh marigold sited near the source of an ancient spring, and the subtle cast of a bell shape in a piece of discarded chewing gum that could be found near the site of an old bell casting foundry. Other fragments reflected the present day such as the tiny seed heads blown from the park marking the passing of the seasons, or the faint trace of lipstick on a cigarette butt.
