‘Inner alchemy’ involves practitioners quietening their minds to unlock the suppressed parts of themselves for greater personal integration. Hales uses the pandemic as an enforced context of isolation and containment from which to create his digital installation. The artist asks: have we given our minds the space to explore and accept the previously suppressed parts of ourselves? Using light as a metaphor, Hales plays with ideas of repression and awareness within the broader search for personal transformation.

Nicholas Hales is a contemporary artist working across multiple disciplines, including painting, drawing and video/film. He holds an Advanced Diploma in Fine Art and a Diploma in Graphic Design from the University of Cape Town. He has presented five solo exhibitions in South Africa and has participated in multiple group shows both nationally and internationally.

He has received many accolades for his work, including a scholarship to an art residence in Paris. His work is included in permanent collections at L’Air Arts in Paris, Detroit Museum of New

Art (MONA) in the US and Nandos in South Africa.