the bath hour

and the dreams its shallow depths can prompt



2021
single-channel colour HD video with sound, 4’08”
Location: West Dean College of the Arts, West Sussex
This work was inspired by one of the original, unusual bathrooms at Monkton House designed in 1902 by Edwin Lutyens.  

Mixed microphones including contact and hrydrophones were used to capture the sound of the space.


Monkton House was known as ‘the only complete Surrealist house ever created in Britain’ with the assistance of Salvador Dalí. The house was subsequently purchased for the purposes of a college teaching arts and conservation known as West Dean College. There was something extraordinary and other-worldly about this bathroom, harbouring the rich history and luxury of the house from a previous era, in its unusual glass, beautiful tile work and noisy plumbing.

© Sophie Standford, 2024