Castle (1964) is a constantly evolving installation that includes various sculptural elements: found objects, a black painting and a flashing light bulb. This is a key transitional work in Malcolm Le Grice’s practice as it bridges together his fine art background and his subsequent career in avant-garde filmmaking.

Castle (1964) is often shown together with a very large sister ‘painting’, Lightbulb Assemblage (1964) and the expanded film Castle 1 (1966). The lightbulb is a recurrent element within these works: it is at the same time a real object, a collage (the ‘real’ lightbulb box), and a pre-recorded, then screened, image. By repeating this same element throughout the four related works, Le Grice provokes a conceptual discourse on representation and the ‘real’.

The current installation of Castle (2015) includes a film element: a miniature version of Castle 1 (1966) and a videocamera which feeds the image of an actual hanging lightbulb and the surrounding environment through two small screens nestled within the assemblage.