Ffotogallery, the national development agency for photography and lens-based media in Wales, presents Wonder Chamber, a solo exhibition of lens-based media work by artist Karen Ingham, spanning science, museology and art.

[img_assist|nid=8347|title=Piece of Mind Mask, 2010|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=520|height=431]Wales-based artist Karen Ingham has a keen interest in the natural sciences and how scientific ideas and processes inform contemporary image making. Presented for the first time at Ffotogallery in Spring 2012, Wonder Chamber brings together various bodies of work produced by Ingham over the last decade in the form of “an imaginary museum with its interconnected spaces for the display of seemingly disparate and eclectic objects and artifacts”.

The Wunderkammer, the original Wonder Chamber, sought to create order out of the chaos of nature and introduced a standard classification system for the diverse and often bizarre collections on display in 19th Century museums. A key element of Ingham’s practice is to play on and subvert the way objects are collected, archived and displayed in science museums, putting them in the service of contemporary art.

Alongside her exploration of earlier scientific ideas and phenomena, Ingham embraces the creative potential of digital image making technologies. By looking forward and looking back at the history of science, Ingham’s work reminds us that scientific progress relies as much on imagination and creativity as on physics and mathematics. Engaging with science, playfully mimicking and reconstructing its ideas and methods, the artist sheds light on the complex process of technical, biological and cultural formation that both shapes our futures and defines human experience.

The exhibition and accompanying publication have been made possible thorough a partnership between Ffotogallery and Swansea Metropolitan University.