The Shadow Factory
Ian Richards has produced a series of new text-based works that suggest a clandestine domain of secret languages and communication systems. The languages and codes he employs are often obsolete or no longer in common usage in order to defy easy translation by the viewer. Richards’ works of neon and ultra violet light and sound, use writing systems and codes such as Morse and shorthand to explore ‘closed’ worlds of communication in direct response to ‘Shadow Factory’.
Serodiscordant (2016) consists of an ultraviolet black light sign written in Pitman shorthand of the word ‘positive’ and a neon white light sign of the word ‘negative’. With the universal rise of digital voice recording processes, this speedy, handwritten, phonetic method of minute taking is now almost defunct. As with earlier work Richards continues with his investigation of the complex relationships that separate the mainstream and ‘the other’ as reflected in the language used to express the past, present and future of HIV and AIDS. A person’s HIV status is undetectable without a blood test; Richards’ ultraviolet black light is a direct metaphor for what is present, but invisible - it is quite literally ‘beyond violet light’ – violet light being the highest frequency of light detectable by the human eye.
The sound work A New Death (2016) explores the closed world of signalling used by the ham or amateur radio enthusiast. The amateur radio sphere continues to use the electromagnetic radio frequency spectrum (longer than waves of infrared light) for the non-commercial exchange of messages and wireless experimentation. Many hams still use Morse code as a covert system of communication. A New Death consists of multiple analogue radios that transmit words by the author Terry Pratchett using Morse: ‘No matter how fast light travels it finds that darkness has got there first, and is waiting for it.’ Morse code was first used extensively in early radio telegraphy because it could transmit voice; it was essential for communication in WW2, carrying messages of tactical manoeuvres between warships and naval bases. The code uses letters of the alphabet to represent both long and short, and light and sound signals to communicate messages.
In keeping with previous bodies of work Richards’ focuses on the complex issues of identity, originality and authorship. Richards explores the overlaps between amateur and specialist skills, particularly across what might be perceived as a generational divide.