Kathryn Campbell Dodd and Jacob Whittaker Absent But Not Forgotten

Kathryn Campbell Dodd and Jacob Whittaker Absent But Not Forgotten 19th March - 4th April Belief in the paranormal can be controversial; but there is a strong human desire to find pattern and meaning in the unexplained. Absent But Not Forgotten uses video and sound experiments, textiles and technical objects to evoke the world of ‘ghost hunting’. The project considers the associations, clichés and influences of TV and films on the phenomenon. “The idea for this project came about on a drive from west Wales to Bristol. I was working with the idea that I wanted to use an old armchair that Jake had previously given me to make a kind of ghostly telephone/chair hybrid object. At this point Jake began to relate the tale of his Grandfather, Bernard Jones, an inventor who had experimented with EVP techniques to make a telephone to speak with the dead. Just to seal the deal, we spent some of the journey driving on the M4 motorway alongside the black hearse used by Ghostwatch Wales.” Kathryn "Aspects of the exhibition are loosely based on some of my Grandfather’s research into EVP. As an electrical engineer and inventor he was convinced he could make a telephone that would communicate with 'the other side'. Oddly enough, he, like me, had a barn full of semi-working and broken Hifi and TV - interesting that we both share a fascination with what might be found in the broken, silent or noisy portions of recorded media." Bernard left a lockup full of electronic bits and pieces and furniture when he died, some of which Jacob has inherited. The equipment and objects may well have been part of Bernard’s investigations and their presence in the gallery aims to rekindle those resonances. "I remember as a kid, whenever we visited my grandparents, Bernard would take great interest in whatever electronic game or gadget us kids were playing with that week... once taking apart a light up Yo-Yo, much to my annoyance, in order to see and explain how the motion was switching the light on...I’m sure the technologies available now would have interested and excited his 'Giant Brain' " Jacob. This exhibition is for Bernard www.absent-but-not-forgotten.co.uk www.kathryndodd.com www.jacobwhittaker.co.uk