On first visit to The Usher Gallery, we felt gallery 3 had the most potential as a performance space due to its contrast to the other rooms in the building. All the other rooms in The Usher are light, airy and traditionally decorated, whereas gallery 3 is dark, enclosed and contemporary.
We found that there are many fascinating aspects about this particular room, one of which being that the items on display are withheld from their intended purpose because they are in glass cases. The items here are practical but with artistic value, as opposed to other features in the gallery such as the oil paintings and sculptures.
Left: Tea set collection in Gallery 3
The Usher Gallery as a whole displays many items from James Usher’s personal clock collection, most of which appear in gallery 3. As you enter the room, the first thing you see is the Grandfather clock and the pocket watch collection, this is such a dominant feature in the room that it influenced our ideas for a performance focusing on time, in this space.
Left: Grandfather clock 
Left: Pocket watch collection
The lack of natural light means the only perception of time in the room is from the clocks, this makes it ideal for a performance on time as we can manipulate how time is perceived.
The room is midnight blue colour and has a very low ceiling creating an enclosed and compact space to work in. The fact it is a room built within a room makes it feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable, which is an aspect we would like the audience to experience whilst watching our piece. The contemporary style of the room is unusual to be in a Georgian building, this intrigued us and was our inspiration to perform here.