Begun some time around 1845, JMW Turner’s Norham Castle, Sunrise (c. 1845) was long regarded as an unfinished sketch. Turner’s painting reduces the scene to two complementary colours and a handful of basic elements – a milky blue sky, the hazy yellow of the sun reflected in the river, and the rectangular bulk of the castle set against the hills in the distance.

Built in the 12th century as a stronghold on the border with Scotland, the castle was the scene of almost continuous violence for the next five hundred years. Though none of this is immediately obvious in Turner’s painting, standing in front of it you can feel the ghosts of these ancient battles.

I rebuilt Turner’s scene using images of the River Thames shot from Waterloo Bridge. The three-dimensional frame is an homage to the nascent modernist space in Turner’s landscape, which seems to oscillate between two and three dimensions.

C-type contact prints and thread on welded metal frame – approx 140cm x 180cm

1998. Private Collection