"Caroline Rye: The Turin Machine"
1999-09-10 until 1999-09-19
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Edinburgh, , UK United Kingdom

The Turin Machine is a performance/installation which uses a giant pinhole camera to create life-size photographic portraits of the artist. During the exhibition the audience enters the camera to view the process of exposure and thus witness the act of taking a photograph.

The work occurs over a number of days, each day resulting in the exposure of a picture or “shroud”. These cloths are then developed and exhibited as evidence of a reality. The origins of this work lie in recently conducted research into the possible manufacture of the Turin Shroud.

It has been suggested that the shroud is a medieval forgery made using early optical and alchemical technology - namely a pinhole camera and a cloth coated with light sensitive chemicals. If this is the case then the Turin Shroud is, in fact, the first photograph.

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