The History of Wall Drawing, 1930-1935 (The Borley Rectory)

2005, Installation at Pilot, London
water-based black enamel and liquid graphite on flat, black wall
280cm x 360cm

> link to Pilot London

Notes

This piece was done for my participation in “Pilot:2” in London in 2005. The two touchstones for the piece were London as cultural context (old, haunted houses) and the fact that I was nominated to the show by Sol LeWitt (closely identified with wall-drawing in contemporary art).

In 1937 the famous ghost-buster and psychic researcher Harry Price moved in to the Borley Rectory northeast of London to document and investigate a long series of paranormal phenomena supposed to have taken place in the house. His findings and theories were published in the book “The Most Haunted House in England” in 1940, which gave the rectory widespread notoriety.

The starting point for The History of Wall Drawing… is a series of writings on the interior walls of the Rectory that appeared between 1930 and 1935, during the residency of the Reverend Mr. Foyster and his wife Marianne Foyster. The messages are cryptic, but are legibly addressed to Marianne.

The drawing consists of two elements: The first element is stencils in liquid graphite replicating the wall-writings from the photographic documentation done by Price in 1937. The second element is an acrylic wall-painting based on a computer rendering of the house, painted in black enamel on flat, black wall.

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