Air of Different Temperatures

Barbara J Graham and Will S Woods

A collaboration between Barbara J Graham and Will S Woods who met at the Arches Studios in 2024. Barbara invents abstract, impossible spaces that feel physical but can only exist in painting; Will’s practice includes making maquettes of invented spaces that contain three-dimensional painting. For this exhibition at the Hidden Wardrobe, they merged their interests to devise an intervention that treated the interior space of the former shop as a deep canvas.

Air of Different Temperatures re-animated the atmosphere in forgotten corners and considered the Hidden Wardrobe’s contents not as hidden but as hiding. Objects obscured in storage were cast as performers through shadow play in a translucent, hanging, collage. Sections of painting wafted in a breeze, revealing and concealing the space. After dark, oscillating lights casted shadows and scattered through the air, rebounding off the surfaces, through the glass at the front of the shop, and onto the street.

‘Working together has helped us dig deeper in our respective and shared motivational insights. The process marks a freer approach which we both consider as a meaningful step towards new ways of interdependent working.’