In 1995, as a contribution to Durham’s Cathedral’s celebrations of its 900th anniversary, the Chaplaincy commissioned Tony Sinden to create a site-specific work for the cathedral. His response, Approaching the Dissolve, broke new ground as the first sound and video installation in Durham (if not in any) cathedral.
The installation took the sculptural form of an altar and triptych. On to the three panels of the triptych, a sequence of images - including a reflection of the cathedral in the River Wear, rushing water, a miner’s lamp and an ecclesiastical figure turning the pages of a book - were projected with an accompanying soundtrack. As Sinden himself put it at the time, "Taking inspiration from the cathedral, the video installation will explore a shifting conceptual relationship between the architecture, Durham landscape and community…I hope [it] will both challenge audience expectations and stimulate a response towards the timespace dimension of the concept in relationship to its historic and spiritual setting."

Tony Sinden is a co-founder of the Housewatch group. Over the years, his work has typically combined sound, light and projected images with carefully selected objects, with the aim of redefining architectural space. In Approaching the Dissolve, however, he "does not wrestle so singularly with notions of space and light…but draws more closely on issues raised by the cathedral itself.…Whilst all else shifts in the world around it, many of the aspects of this building have remained unchanged for centuries…Sinden has begun to explore, with delightful ambiguity, the changing social and spiritual context for cathedrals in Britain as we approach the end of the twentieth century. With his traditional restraint Sinden may not be giving us all the answers, but in a careful and meditative way he begins to beg the questions." (Jeni Walwin in the exhibition catalogue)

Tony Sinden was appointed artist in residence at Durham Cathedral for the year 2001-2002

For further information contact Bill Hall