Michael John Whelan
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Echoes of evaporation
and submergence

1991
And they did live by watchfires
Nocturne
Untitled
Darkness had no need
These last breaths
The time of cruel wonders
was not yet over

In the black dark for good
Carapace
That we were to wait
Like force and matter
Lupus
20 Vertices, 30 Edges
and 160 Diagonals

Dune
Transit of Venus
Over the echoing gateway
Stars/Star
Shadowplay
Archway (diptych)
The time of cruel wonders was not yet over
2001/2016
framed chromogenic prints
30 x 30cm
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In 2001 while travelling Europe as a young student, Whelan discovered an old house on the outskirts of Prague. Beginning life as a domestic residence, the building was put into service as a KGB training facility. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was repurposed into a hotel and in 1996 it was in an adaptation of a Danielle Steel novel playing itself: a cold war location. The photographs in the series, devoid of human presence, present intimate interior details, traces of a place that hid so much for so long. Today, along with its clandestine history, Hotel Mondial is gone forever.