View through to the other side of the World
Arts Council of England Research Fellowship
2002-2004
‘The aim of the Fellowship was to link the UK to the research destination in some way. With is in mind and having been asked to propose a project for the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane I immediately remembered my time growing up in Guernsey, in the Channel Islands and remembered being told, while playing on the beach to be careful, because should I keep digging I might one day reach Australia. This thought proved to be the trigger, the catalyst for one of the most ambitious and logistically complicated projects I have ever realised to date.’
Eric Snell
Grange House
Guernsey College School of Art,
St Peter Port
Guernsey
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Brisbane
Australia
Photomontage/Photoshop image of the hole
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
2003
Photoshop image of the hole in ‘the gallery’
Guernsey College School of Art
2003
For the constructions of the hole at the
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Brisbane, Australia
July, 2004
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Brisbane, Australia
July, 2004
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Brisbane, Australia
July, 2004
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Brisbane, Australia
July, 2004
‘the gallery’ Guernsey College of Art
St Peter Port
August, 2004
‘the gallery’ Guernsey College of Art
St Peter Port
August, 2004
‘the gallery’ Guernsey College of Art
St Peter Port
August, 2004
‘the gallery’ Guernsey College of Art
St Peter Port
August, 2004
‘the gallery’ Guernsey College of Art
St Peter Port
August, 2004
‘the gallery’ Guernsey College of Art
St Peter Port
August, 2004
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Brisbane, Australia
August, 2004
View from both ends of the virtual hole
Brisbane/Guernsey
3 September 2004
Ella Snell (in Guernsey)
Photographed in Brisbane
September 2004
Project open to the public - a young girl writing messages to her family in Brisbane
September 2004
The project’s aim is to conceptually drill a hole through the world. In essence ‘View through to the other side of the World is very simple yet it is one of the most ambitious and logistically complicated projects I have ever realised; involving two countries, two art centres, two simultaneous installations using cutting edge technology.
Constantly responding to different locations and situations, I have realised numerous projects over the years, in many different countries, working with a wide range of materials – but never I have worked on project of this scale.
View through to the other side of the World evolved out of an Arts Council of England International Research Fellowship that I was awarded in 2002. The Fellowship took me to Australia where I was based at the Institute of Modern Art, located at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Downtown Brisbane. In response to the location and the Fellowship, I decided to realise a project that in some way united Britain and Australia.
While wrestling with that the problem I remembered that when I was a young boy growing up in Guernsey, and when I was playing on one of the Island’s many beaches, I was frequently told that if I were to keep digging I might one day reach Australia. This thought, this seed of an idea, coupled with the fact that recently I have been working with CCTV and real time imagery, started me thinking about the possibility of realise this ‘childhood dream’ while simultaneously capturing the spirit of the Fellowship by digging a virtual hole – connecting Brisbane to St Peter Port.
Eric Snell