The Phartobooth, 2023
Cardboard installation

Photos from ArtHub: In The Middle of our street, BA Drawing Exhibition

(photo credits: Bessie Cheung, Andy Luengo)
 

This project has been long awaited, I did a sketch a while ago of the Phartobooth and the way it would function and I'm happy to say it only had to withstand minimal alterations due to my lack of resources. The Phartobooth is a simple idea that has probably been done before, where an artist replaces the camera in a photo booth. This concept allows for endless possibilities, as with endless artists, locations and contexts you have endlessly different results. I decided to build the Phartobooth with the materials I had at hand; cardboard boxes I found in the street, a bell from my home and an old gazebo from a charity shop for the curtains. Initially I wanted the screen that the subject would look into to be made of two way mirror, allowing for more light and space for the artist to see through, however I hadn't ordered it time so necessity called for tin foil, which I found to be more playful and entertaining.

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What I enjoy about this booth, is that the expectation of camera-worthy accuracy is removed, and the haphazardness of the box itself sets you up with low expectations for the quality of the drawings, especially when a stranger is having their picture drawn. People can appreciate the mistakes, while the artist doesn't need to feel immense pressure as there is anonymity, unless in a context when the subjects know the artist sitting inside. Another enjoyable detail of the Phartobooth is that there is a square at the feet of the artist cut from the cardboard so the artist's shoes poke through and are visible to the viewer. The artist is only distinguishable by their footwear. The Phartobooth plays with the ideas of humanity versus machinery, where both the drawing and interaction between artist and subject have an awkwardness to them. The artist can be slightly seen at eye level due to the slit that they can see through which allows for moments of awkward eye contact which is fun to experience as people don't know what to do as they wait for their portrait to be drawn.