Colvin makes use of the old practice of anamorphic perspective, a visual trick employed by artists centuries ago. In Londons National Gallery, there is a famous Holbein painting entitled, 'The Ambassadors' which displays below the portraits of two male figures a momento mori - an elongated shape which reveals itself to be a human skull when viewed from one particular angle. The artist takes this same device and uses it in a completely original way. In a corner of his small studio he constructs an installation making use of diverse materials from his complex collection of objects: plaster ornaments, toys, comic books, chairs and tables, hot-water bottles, mirrors, vacuum cleaners and other household items. He borrows classical figures from well-loved masterpieces such as Michelangelo's Bound Slave, Botticelli's Venus and Ingres' Oedipus. He painstakingly transcribes these borrowed images across the uneven surfaces of his installation, painting individual surfaces and gauging his progress through the eye of the camera, which views the installation from a fixed viewpoint. By this means, an illusion is created as figures take shape across the surface of tea-pots, rocking horses, and all the other odds and ends which have been used in a particular installation. The finished result is then photographed and exhibited as large scale photographic prints.

If you have Real Player (available free from www.real.com)
you can see larger clips of Calum on the set of "The Kelvingrove Eight"

or you can view a QTVR panorama (254kb) "A Caucus Race"