‘In this series of photographs, Catriona Grant abandons the viewer in silent corridors and sparse rooms that have been stripped, but are not quite, yet, bare. These spaces echo, but we realise it is the sound of our own footsteps'
Roberta McGrath

Through large scale photographs The Examination Room explores the relationship between public institutions and private experience. Based in a disused hospital building, unclothed female figures occupy redundant interiors. The figures stand and sit with their backs turned to us, with their faces hidden. Although their bodies are exposed and vulnerable, available for examination, we have no way of knowing how they are feeling, whether they are anxious or tired, relaxed or upset. For all that they show these are very private images relating to common individual experience of areas of life often hidden from view. It is held that the institution has the power to rid the body of its problem, so the individual must concede to its authority. The process of implicitly trusting and exposing oneself to a stranger is enabled by the impersonal and formal context of the institution.

‘When we find ourselves in institutional spaces, spaces that are never occupied, only visited, never loved only endured, never cared for, only sanitised, we are never really there, out minds, inevitably wander to other places, other times, the present becomes a spectre that we have retreated from as we mentally wrest ourselves from the grip of its cold, bleak reality… ’
Roy Exley

Grant’s work picks up on the subtlety and complexity of the relationship between individual and institution. Using long exposures she blurs the outline of the figure, the boundary between it and its environment, yet the figures remain distinct and self-contained as they turn from the viewer and wait. The individual must be intimately observed by the institution in order for it to perform its function, but they must at the same time feel, and be made to feel, remote from the necessary acts of intrusion. It is a precarious and paradoxical relationship.

‘The composition and perspective of Catriona Grant’s images possess an almost sacred, dream geometry like a Piero della Francesca fresco and the flooding and spilling of natural, specular light casts a numinous quality to these photographs, where the body language of the woman is self possessed and meditative.’
Lorna Waite

Talks and Events:
Wednesday 12th October - Roberta McGrath gave a talk on the artists work in the context of her catalogue article.
Saturday 22nd October – Catriona Grant gave an exhibition talk and tour.

Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th October - The artist undertook workshops in association with Glasgow Women’s Library who produced a series of self portraits.

A slideshow of images of the exhibition In Situ, a selection of images from the show itself and talks
together with images from the workshops with Glasgow Woens Library and their outcomes.
To view a larger selection of workshop images follow the link on the right hand navigation menu.


Additional Information
Catriona Grant is an Edinburgh-based artist working with lens-based and digital media to create work for exhibition and installation. Recent exhibitions include: Masquerade: Women’s Contemporary Portrait Photography, Photofusion, London, UK (2004); Bratislava Month of Photography, (2004); and My Father is the Wise Man of the Village, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2002). Versions of The Examination Room have been exhibited in 511 Gallery, New York, USA (2003) and Frontstore Gallery, Basel, Switzerland (2004). The Examination Room was produced by Belfast Exposed in association with Street Level and was exhibited at the former in early 2005. It has been featured in Portfolio and in Next Level. She has been the recipient of a number of commissions and international residencies and her work is held in a number of public and private collections. She lectures part-time at Edinburgh College of Art.