Category: Behind the scenes

When audience members step into an immersive installation, they immediately experience an atmosphere designed to evoke a felt emotional response.

Yet behind that seamless experience lies an intricate, often invisible layer of site-specific planning, structural engineering, and studio fabrication. For the Being Seen exhibition, by Kingston artist Portia “Po” Chapman, at the Kingston Arts Council (KAC) Pocket Gallery, creating the central Glow Chamber required translating complex spatial limitations into deliberate design choices.

Site-specific art demands that an artist work in direct conversation with a physical space. Initial room measurements rarely reveal the true essence or practical challenges of an architectural environment. Before construction began in Chapman’s Kingston art studio, she rendered a 3D CAD model based on gallery blueprints, followed by a crucial site visit with a full-scale pink paper floor template.

The Pocket Gallery presented numerous real-world constraints: an off-center metal pillar, doorway sight-lines, a moving wall shelf, spotlight clearances, and strict accessibility requirements for wheelchair maneuverability. By laying out the 1:1 template on-site, Chapman trimmed perimeter arcs and notched out sections around the pillar—adjustments essential to ensuring the structure would fit safely before cutting a single sheet of wood.

Back in the woodshop, these site adjustments dictated Chapman’s studio practice. To guarantee structural integrity across the gallery floor, Chapman built an “integrated plinth” using two staggered-seam layers of laminated plywood, eliminating structural weak points.

Anchored vertical 2×3 studs formed the core skeleton for seven hollow MDF monoliths.

Because gallery spotlights capped the allowable height, the tallest monolith was engineered to top out at 6’2″—maximizing human scale while allowing safe clearance during installation.

Every surface treatment served a deliberate conceptual function. Custom-cut stone-hybrid subway tiles, flexible oak wrapping, and troweled textures turned the monoliths into brutalist, concrete-like structures.

Highlighted by cool grey strip lighting beneath the plinth and a stark grey sign reading “when BEING UNSEEN… we fade”, this artificial grey environment was engineered to evoke the cold isolation of contemporary urban streets.

In site-specific installations, every unseen calculation—from staggered seams to notch clearances—quietly anchors the final artwork. By intentionally building a cold, rigid urban environment, the structural design of the Glow Chamber established the perfect harmonic contrast, setting the stage for visitors to feel the uplifting, golden warmth of being seen.

Portia “Po” Chapman is a specialized Site-Specific Artist, muralist, and educator (BFAH in Sculpture & Installation, B.Ed, OCT) based in Kingston, Ontario. Renowned for her rigorous technical precision and signature high-contrast aesthetic, she transforms complex architectural constraints—from strict accessibility parameters to spatial obstructions—into immersive, felt emotional experiences. By fusing raw, organic elements like hand-sculpted rawhide with brutalist structural engineering, modern digital tools, and integrated print media, Portia crafts site-specific environments where every invisible detail invites viewers into active dialogue with the work. Discover more of her portfolio, public artworks, and upcoming exhibitions at loveartbypo.ca

Portia “Po” Chapman, Kingston Artist

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