Corridor of Uncertainty

A 5.840 metre panel of etched glass on the wall of the corridor leading from the exhibition space to the auditorium of The Pound arts centre, was designed by Michael Fairfax an artist who lives at Wiveliscombe in Somerset and specialises in site-specific, often large, works of art for public places.

Once Mr Fairfax’s idea was chosen from a host of bidders for the task, he and The Pound’s artistic director Nicholas Keyworth spent hours debating the details and when their search for a suitable poem to be etched on the glass failed, Mr Fairfax wrote the words himself.

As audiences walk through the glass corridor towards the auditorium they will read: “Walk do not run past light and shadow drifting to rhythms of sun and moon through the corridor of uncertainty, ahead the doors opening, a promise, a dream, a new adventure.”

The reference to different light relate to the unique way in which the words are etched into the centre of the glass. The panel (made up of three pieces of glass) is lit by small red LED lights from above and below, which at dark show the letters, each word in a different font, glowing pink. They look completely different in the morning sun when the words are thrown as shadows on the wall behind the panel and in certain lights they are almost invisible.

It’s called the corridor of uncertainty because there is no knowing what is going to happen in the auditorium at the end of it.