In 2007 Barham began compiling an extensive list of two-word anagrams deduced from the name Leptis Magna (‘Magenta Lips’, ‘Pliant Games’, ‘Plant Images’). In constant reference to the artificial Roman ruin assembled at Virginia Water, Barham’s hand written grids of rearranged letters pertain to an act of ‘linguistic’ anastylosis, using the fragmented ruins of a name as building blocks for future permutations-ocillating between the illusionary shadow of the ruin and its reinvigorated departure through new channels.

In Proteus (2010) a text is created from combinations of letters contained within the phrase 'return to Leptis Magna'. The animation tells the story of the Greek God Proteus and the mythical Spartan King Menelaus as related in Homer’s Odyssey. Trapped on the island of Pharos by the gods, Menelaus tries to learn his means of escape from the shape shifting Proteus who knows all things past, present and future but will change his form in order to avoid revealing his secrets. Consistent with Barham’s previous text based animations Proteus runs at speed too quick for the eye to catch every word, preventing elucidation and instead presenting viewers with the fragmentary materials from which to build their own narrative.

(Tangram) Posture (2010) presents a reconfigurable architecture, which acts as sculpture, seating, screen, plinth and/or platform. Assembled using the shapes of a tangram (a Chinese dissection puzzle), the fragments of the configuration are formed to recall the ruins at both Leptis Magna and Virginia Water creating an incomplete, undecided and constantly transforming zone of reconfiguration.

Presented within the show is also a collection of relief prints from a series of letters, numbers and punctuation created from a tangram puzzle. Revisiting Barham’s earlier work Magenta, Emerald, Lapis, these recent prints explore the extensive possibilities in the overtly rigid structure of tangram and the plasticity of symbols and their production.

Accompanying the exhibition is a commissioned essay by Ellen Mara de Wachter whose interest in the structure and form of language is explored in relation to the ruin and its antagonistic relationship with form.

Barham's structure will also be used to host a series of events including a screening of films by Ed Atkins and a performance by Rebecca Bibby.

Click HERE to download exhibition essay by Ellen Mara de Wachter