We headed over to the Hayward Gallery on Thursday 24th October for the opening night of Emmanuelle Lainé’s site-specific installation ‘Learn the Rules Like a Pro, So You Can Break Them Like an Artist!’. Emmanuelle Lainé creates disorienting installations which transform the spaces they occupy into unsettling perceptual environments. The placement of various objects throughout the room addresses the boundary between our personal and professional lives. From tupperware boxes filled with a packed lunch, to suitcases immersed in soil, the items reference the working environments of spaces that are home to mundane objects as well as the more creative and absurd.

The installation really highlights the relationship between art, production and digital technology, combining the use of all three in order to complete the finished piece. The artist Emmanuelle Lainé created the piece, photographer Thierry Bal captured the room and objects, and we worked on the post production. We retouched certain parts, ensuring that when the piece was blown up to 11m long and scrutinised up close that everything was exactly as should be. We were also responsible for colour matching the image, making sure that the shades and tones matched the room as closely as possible when printed. Of course, it’s not ideal to be running out 11m wide proofs each time, so it was important to get the colour right in next to no attempts.

Emmanuelle Lainé is a recipient of the 2018 Artist Commission Program for the Montblanc Cultural Foundation’s Art Collection, which has enabled the creation of her site-specific exhibition in the HENI Project Space.