About the artwork
The two-screen installation in the niches in the Hall of Sidney Sussex College is a celebration of female scholarship in the College. Women fellows were invited to be photographed with objects of their choice that they felt best represented their research, themselves, or aspirations for the future. Scarborough’s photographs of their hands and objects are in the style of Dutch still life painting, beautiful and evocative, leaving visitors with a desire to know more about each object, the owner of the hands and the story behind the image. A pair of screens wrapped in gilded frames placed on stands that match the wall colour integrates the contemporary artwork with the past and the present history of the Hall. Proximity sensors placed at the front of each stand are activated when someone is close by, causing a new portrait to appear. Passers-by thus become active participants in the artwork. With thirty different portraits, viewed as a pair, the changing combination of images on the left and right screens offers up unexpected visual connections across disciplinary divides.