I love empty rooms, in fact I prefer them to those that are furnished.

Whilst I know this is impractical, their lack of clearly defined purpose allows me to be free for a while. I don’t have to do or be anything in an empty room.

This series of photographic collages emerged from a three-week ‘isolation residency’ undertaken at BLINDSIDE Gallery in June 2020; the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inspired by the architecture of the gallery as empty room, and its close proximity to the Metro Tunnel excavation, these works embody my experience of the site during the residency.

Over the three weeks I passed the time by meticulously inscribing the room’s corners, walking its perimeter and looking through its seventh-floor window at the hive of quarrying activity below – exposed earth and the void of the excavation far beyond its surface.

At the conclusion of the residency I attempted to put the room back together by digitally layering and rotating snapshots taken during my perimeter walks. Through this process the collages appeared.

Images by Lucy Foster