Chromatogram
Beyond Expectation
Chromatogram explores the relationship between perception, curiosity and transformation.
Developed through a residency with The Cardboard Box Company, the installation began with a simple challenge: how can a material so often associated with utility, packaging and disposal become something entirely unexpected?
Cardboard is typically understood through a series of assumptions.
Rigid.
Temporary.
Disposable.
Defined by straight lines, right angles and function.
Chromatogram seeks to reverse those expectations.
Occupying the vast interior of Blackburn's former Cotton Exchange, a series of large-scale sculptural forms emerge from the floor like unfamiliar organisms. Soft, flowing and organic, their curved surfaces reject the geometric language traditionally associated with the material. The installation transforms cardboard from something designed to contain objects into something capable of creating experience.
The structures appear simultaneously familiar and otherworldly.
Their surfaces are wrapped in vibrant gradients that shift between colour and distortion, creating a visual language that feels both digital and organic. These transitions create moments of uncertainty, inviting visitors to question what they are seeing and how the forms have come into existence.
At the heart of the work lies an invitation.
Visitors are encouraged to move towards the structures, drawn by a warm glow that radiates from within. Openings reveal interiors lined with exposed kraft paper, transforming the material into something unexpectedly welcoming. The contrast between the vivid exterior and the natural warmth of the interior creates a sense of discovery, as though crossing a threshold into another world hidden just beneath the surface.
Inside, tiny perforations puncture the skin of the structures.
Points of light filter through the walls like distant stars, creating an atmosphere that feels intimate and contemplative. The experience shifts from spectacle to refuge. What first appears monumental becomes protective. Enclosing forms create a sense of shelter, wrapping around visitors with a softness that contrasts sharply with conventional expectations of the material.
The work explores the power of curiosity.
The desire to know what lies beyond a surface.
To step inside the unfamiliar.
To discover that something often overlooked can contain unexpected beauty.
Throughout the installation, cardboard is transformed from a material associated with transit into a destination. From something temporary into something immersive. From something functional into something emotional.
Chromatogram proposes that transformation often begins with a simple act of looking again.
Of questioning assumptions.
Of allowing the familiar to become extraordinary.
The installation invites visitors into a space suspended between reality and imagination, where material, colour and light combine to create an experience that feels both playful and deeply human.
A place of wonder.
A place of warmth.
A place waiting to be discovered.
Project Details
Year
2017
Location
The Cotton Exchange, Blackburn, UK
Commission
National Festival of Making
Type
Immersive Installation
Materials
Digitally printed corrugated cardboard
Scale
15 walk-in sculptural forms
Themes
Transformation • Curiosity • Wonder • Perception • Materiality • Shelter
Photography
Gunner Gu