“Stemming from a longstanding fascination with acts of construction, fabrication, and DIY, Jan McCullough developed an ongoing research archive of her own photographs of workshops and construction spaces. The images presented in this installation were drawn from a particular warehouse in Ireland, where she encountered a series of purpose-built ladders devised by workers to access and repair sections of trains. She observed as these structures were repeatedly rebuilt and repurposed, each iteration forming a new platform from which maintenance could be carried out before the cycle of repair began again.

Inspired by these seemingly ad hoc yet highly intentional acts of problem-solving, McCullough translated similar methods into the gallery space. Photographs of these structures were presented within an installation that drew on the materials and visual language of the original site, echoing the workers’ processes of site-responsive making, adaptation, and improvisation.”