Salon Hegenheim

Glory Hole - A box of tricks

The act of 'looking into' leads this series by Nicholas Winter. Glory holes / peep holes are used as his motive, used to heighten the aspect of seeing, observing, voyeurism, within a presence of anonymity. This work is a collection of curtained, small black boxes with a 'peep hole', inviting the viewer to differently designed 'rooms'. The box, as an object, represents an internal viewing space, an inner cinema: an individual's stage or cabaret, the Glory Hole the entrance to a pornographic theatre of the mind. The curtain is opened to view within. In the boxes are explicit analogue photographs, screen shots taken from a variety of pornographic film genres and manipulated in the photographic darkroom through the process of solarization. Solarization is a process of interruption, briefly exposing the developing image on light sensitive paper in the chemical bath to a light source. This 'burns' the paper, heightens the contrasts yet softens the overall image. The concept here is not to 'show' explicit images for shock but to create a language, start a dialog of closeness, intimacy, to reawaken desire for necessary bodily contact, touch, warmth in various forms. This series of work is meant as a little hymn to sensuality, concupiscence on miniature stages. The language of the body that wishes to revive & retrieve it's erotic and natural life force.