When I took over from Emma Dexter it was as caretaker - I was filling in the 6 week interim period while the permanent Gallery Manager post was advertised. Because Emma was leaving to go to the ICA. The planned exhibition was Rachel Whiteread's Ghost - her first major installation in a public gallery, although Karsten Schubert had shown her work in his Bloomsbury gallery.

The gallery and studios at Chisenhale were both managed from an office in the corner of the gallery. The building was next to the canal but had no natural light because Emma had had the windows blocked over making it a perfect rectangle, and it was vast, a sloping ramp from the entrance into the main area, a small exhibition room to the left of the entrance. The relationship with the studios was tenuous by 1990, the artists above in the studios being rather frustrated that they were not the artists shown in the gallery, the gallery program definitely looking towards established artists. The studio finances were still managed from the gallery, admin run by committee. A Dance Space had been developed at the time of the building complex's renovation, but it was always a separate entity.

The gallery and studios had separate entrances. The gallery had a metal roller blind that came done over the door, this had a small door set into it, a reminder of its industrial past. Any visitor had to ring the bell and wait - anyone answering had to walk the length of the gallery to get to the door, it took several minutes. Descending down the ramp the view of the gallery is impressive. It was one of the few industrial large spaces in London at the time, the other being the Saatchi Gallery in Boundary Road.

Chisenhale Gallery 1990

Northern Adventures St Pancras & Camden Arts Centre

Architectural Association Unit 1 1994 /1995 Installation