Henri Papin is constructed from various disparate figure fragments from literature and film. He consists of (conscious) Henry Papin, and (sublimated) Henri Papin. 
Henry Papin works as an engraver. Henri Papin lives within a darkened room, full of glowing cabinets that attempt to re-create the world in his image.

Conscious Henry observes, sublimated Henri recalls and translates each fragmentary memory into a contained object / scenario. 
He introduces the audience to his hallucinatory world through a collection of secondary characters: The confectioner, The man at the bathhouse, The smoking woman, The psychiatrist, The priest and The engraver - they are embodied within a collection of telling objects. Catalogued and housed inside custom made cabinets, he has documented, and reconstructed their lives according to his own suppositions. 

This is primarily his collection – his world. It stems from Henry’s transient glimpses of people emphasised to an obsessive, repetitive degree – reducing the complexity of each character until they become recurring, mono-behavioural personas.

Each cabinet stands in place of a figure that occupies Henris’ delusional world. They are stripped back to one basic function – that first remembered glimpse has defined their being. Their being defines Henri’s darkest self.


This initial exhibition (held at Inflight ARI, 2006) was stage one of the ongoing Collector project – a project that has developed annually.