2003 was the hottest summer in Europe since 1540, with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees. Committed to working through the heatwave during a 3 month residency in Rome, and with limited resources, Dunhill and O’Brien devised a working method that attempted to reduce their physical exertion. Improvised constructions enabled them to repeatedly drop stones and rocks into raw clay, making negative impressions that were later cast in plaster. These making-performances, carried out in different locations near the residency, were presented through film, photographs and plaster objects. This group of works was titled ‘Examples in Sculpture’.

There are various parallels between a residency and a lockdown, in both cases familiar routines and social interactions are curtailed. ‘EIS: work out’, revisits this earlier work and was made and filmed at their home studio in London during the COVID-19 lockdown. A free standing portable structure with back to back cubicles provided the recommended zero face to face working and 2 metre social distancing. Where ‘Examples in Sculpture’ involved a cooperative form of collaboration, the inability to monitor progress or communicate, in this new work, led to more chaotic results. Despite the staged formality, the interplay of time and memory are not neatly measured out in coffee spoons. Moments of harmonisation are infrequent and quickly replaced by a more combative, awkward and comical choreography.