Here is a room within a room: layers of colour, light and shadows, with corners opening up. Originally the red room was aligned with the remains of a Roman bath complex; a glorious, if small room at the House of the Cryptoporticus in Pompeii. Inside, cool colours of painted sky merged with the warmth of imagined interiors: a mingling of inside and outside, private and public, mundane and sacred.

The steam and mist within the baths complex blur boundaries between here and there, water and air. On the cool, watery walls of the nearby replica bathhouse in Segedunum  (Wallsend),¹ sea creatures twirl in delight. The walls of the Hatton, in turn, end in enigmatic corners, or so I claim. The magic of walls meeting at an angle, like timelines colliding. Overlooked corners hold long kept secrets. Can we tease them out? Do different times meet like walls at an angle? Will the vegetation of tomorrow feast on the ruins of today?

1 https://segedunumromanfort.org.uk/ 

All photos by Colin Davison ‌