BOB BICKNELL-KNIGHT

Trench, 2025
Printed ink and acrylic on canvas, pine wood, staples, PLA, cement mix, PVA, water, tealights, bolt, screw, glue
45 x 31 x 8 cm

Trench (2025) is part of an ongoing series of works by Bob Bicknell-Knight, collectively titled Altars (2024 – ongoing).

Altars is a series of wall-based paintings embedded within elaborate frames, revolving around time, video game worlds and control.

The altar series is made up of hybrid paintings of clocks from different video games. The works are hybrid paintings, beginning as digital photographs that Bicknell-Knight takes of clocks within different video games. The images are digitally edited before being printed onto canvas, stretched and painted onto with acrylic paint, with the offline artist’s hand interacting with the original digital image. The painting method explores the tension between the digital and physical sides of Bicknell-Knight’s practice and is a collaboration between his digital and physical working methods.

The paintings are effectively clocks frozen in time, mimicking how time in video games is often fabricated and stretched, never usually corresponding to time within the physical world. These works are embedded within frames that have been digitally modelled, usually using Google Sketchup, an architectural modelling programme, 3D printed and covered in layers of concrete.

Concrete plays a central role in Bicknell-Knight’s practice, as both a material and a conceptual device. It is used to conceal the origins of his 3D printed works, masking their precision beneath a coarse, industrial surface. In doing so, the work resists immediate legibility, obscuring how it was made and complicating distinctions between digital and the physical space. Concrete introduces weight, permanence and a sense of history to these objects that originate in immaterial, virtual environments, grounding them within a material reality tied to labour, extraction and construction. The frames resemble and reference various elements referencing architecture, timekeeping and subtle religious symbolism tied to faith, power and control.

Accompanying the frozen clocks are lit candles, transforming the works into working time pieces, being randomly replaced during a given exhibition period. In some cases, instead of live candles, electric candles have been used when exhibiting the works.

Trench includes a clock documented within Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003), a neo-noir third-person shooter set in a dark, rainy New York City. The series of games feature a unique bullet time system that allows players to slow down time while retaining normal aiming speed to dodge bullets and eliminate enemies.

Trench has been included in the following exhibitions:

– The Longest Night of the Year, curated by Stella Mõttus. At Kogo Gallery, Tartu, EE, 29th November 2025 – 7th February 2026.