material: black and white Lambda fibre based prints
dimensions: Paper, 101.6 x 127cm
acquisition date: 2010
© the artist
ACC57/2009

My subject matter determines the working methods I adopt, but the core elements of this process always remain. My key interests are the use of utilitarian imagery and how it connects with the themes I am researching. 'Girl in Two Halves', 'Aerial Suspension' (from the Conjuration series) and 'The Appearing Lady' follow on from a work entitled 'Unseen Agents', which looked at the cameras supposed ability to record paranormal activity. I used a group of young women to explore this theme in an attempt to question the alleged connection between adolescence and the paranormal.

The Conjurations series continues to explore this area by using young women to act out staged illusions referencing, amongst other things, the trickery historically used in paranormal photography. The series Conjurations also locates my long-standing interest in magic and its close relationship to photography - especially in its ability to make us believe what we know can?t be true.

Clare Strand