Filming Artworks: The Magical Wardrobe Trunk by Sculptor Colin Wilbourn
Filming artworks in artists studio offers a unique chance to capture not just the finished artwork, but the space, light, and energy that shaped it.
When I filmed The Wardrobe Trunk by Sunderland-based sculptor Colin Wilbourn, I was invited into exactly that kind of moment — where story, sculpture, magic and space converge.
The Wardrobe Trunk is a beautifully constructed wooden sculpture full of optical illusions — equal parts furniture, fable, and fiction. Filmed in Wilbourn’s Sunderland studio, the piece stood quietly in the middle of the space like a forgotten heirloom. It felt theatrical, mysterious, and full of narrative suggestion. Was it a container of memories? A vessel for imagined journeys? Or a character in its own right?
Colin Wilbourn’s work often explores themes of place, memory, and transformation. Known for his earlier large-scale public sculpture collaborations like The River Wear Assemblage (with Craig Knowles and Karl Fisher), Wilbourn’s individual practice retains a strong sense of story, craftsmanship, and material sensitivity. His use of reclaimed wood and stone creates a tactile language that resonates with history and imagination.
My Approach to Filming Art and Artists
As a documentary filmmaker, I specialise in filming artists and their creative processes, focusing on how ideas are translated into visual forms. I’ve worked with a range of artists across disciplines — from Hilary Paynter and Dominic Wilcox to Don Letts, Lemn Sissay, and Ed Carter. Each collaboration has taught me to listen closely, adapt my approach, and allow the work to guide the visual language.
Filming artworks like The Wardrobe Trunk are all about slowing down. I shot with three GH4 cameras and a Ronin gimbal, letting the light shift naturally across the intricacies of the sculpture, pausing on textures, angles, and joints. Without the distractions of a public setting, the studio became a stage — a quiet space where the sculpture could breathe and speak on its own terms.
Filming artworks is about capturing the form—but it’s also about creating new relationships between the piece and the viewer. With Colin Wilbourn’s sculpture, my role wasn’t just to document its physical presence, but to reveal how it sits within its environment, how light and movement transform it, and how it might be experienced from perspectives not possible in a static encounter. Film allows the artwork to breathe in time, drawing out textures, shadows, and resonances that add emotional and narrative dimensions to the viewer’s understanding.
Why Filming in the Studio Matters
Documenting an artwork in the artist’s studio captures a fleeting yet powerful stage in its existence — a moment before public display, before curation, and before external narratives are layered on top. It’s where the piece is still in close dialogue with its maker, shaped by the rhythms of the space, the tools on the bench, and the traces of earlier works.
Filming artworks in this environment offers a rare opportunity to focus on the finer details: the craftsmanship, the material choices, the textures that speak volumes before a single word is said. Studio-based filming allows for a more nuanced and honest portrayal of an artwork’s essence, creating a deeper emotional connection for the viewer and a richer context for understanding the artist’s intent.
The Wardrobe Trunk is a perfect example of this kind of intimate documentation. In the stillness of Colin Wilbourn’s studio, the piece took on a quiet narrative energy — it felt less like a static sculpture and more like a character mid-transformation. It reminded me why I’m drawn to filming artworks and artists: not just to record how a piece looks, but to reveal how it resonates, how it occupies space, and how it might shift meaning depending on who encounters it.
These moments — captured before the artwork leaves the studio — are where its visual story truly begins. The studio holds traces of the artist’s decisions, doubts, and discoveries, and filming there allows for a more layered, human perspective on the work. You can sense the presence of time — not just in the making of the sculpture, but in its anticipation of what comes next. Filming at this stage offers a kind of portraiture, not just of the object, but of the creative journey itself. It’s where meaning begins to breathe, before it meets the world.
📽️ Explore more artist portrait films and studio documentaries here:
https://alanfentiman.co.uk/vimeo-videos/artist-films