Pressure Chamber

Pressure Chambers are artificially constructed hermetic systems that are sealed off and designed to contain substances and reactions at pressures above atmospheric conditions. Sites of forced yet contingent collisions, pressure chambers are self-contained ecologies of power. Due to their hermetic nature they can appear hostile to visitors that require air, space or compass because they are closed systems, ‘air-tight’. They can also provide ideal climates for micro-organisms that exist within their architecture: cells that have a tendency towards the alchemical or house serial practices with their own internal logic. These cells are the manufactured raw material of the pressure chambers but also self-propagate and, simultaneously, reconfigure their host. This Pressure Chamber is a bespoke installation that co-constructs an intramural ecology in friction with the existing architecture of ArtLacuna. This built environment is produced through a series of expanded paintings by Dale Holmes and Tina Jenkins, and a versatile structure (Cyborgian Nano-Technic Transformer Unit or CNTU) fabricated by HOH. These discrete structures and interventions are then impinged upon and inhabited, or repurposed, by a programme of performances entitled Nematodes and an accompanying text and sound work Sick_Flower produced by Lisa Barnard.