guyan porter
Last Shelter - 2008 ©

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Last Shelter is a participatory project comprising of a pre fabricated building, housing a de-conditioning chamber. The interior is lined with thick black fabric, and the floor is coated with pungent wood bark, giving a strong fermenting smell and an uneven walking surface. Entering one at a time, participants are plunged into a disorientating space of total darkness. Finding a chair the participant is then faced with a neon text, pulsing intermittently. Contrasting with the darkness of the interior the blinding message leaves a dazzling after glow, punctuated again by complete darkness.

Last Shelter provides an internal participatory experience, designed to question our most deeply held views, with audience participation being central to the aims of the project. The installation explores themes that have characterized recent work, making parallels between social conditioning, brain patterns and religious experience.

Last Shelter explores how concepts and belief systems, regardless of their purpose, can be instilled in us through repeat conditioning, affecting even our most basic understandings of reality.

commissioned by UZ Events for The Environmental Art Project 2008

guyan porter damien hirst anish kapoor religion atheism art modern participatory installation