Re-store Exhibition

Re-store is focused on the Grade 2 Listed, Wellington Hangar at Brooklands Museum prior to its planned dismantling, relocation and restoration.  In response to the structure and the contents of the hangar the exhibition explores ideas of restoration, decay, and fragility of existence.  

As part of the 6plus2 Art Collective these are my works for the exhibition (7-21 June 2014).

The work focusses on the unnoticed in terms of physicality and process. Tiny fragments of the building preserved like relics of memory; and the role of women, the amalgamation of domestic skills with industrial process highlights their often unrecognised contribution.

Hangar I

Hand made artists’ book in presentation box : iron gall ink, watercolour, vintage illustrations, rust fragment. 

From an oxidised fragment the subtle colours and textures are rendered into a tiny keepsake.

 Hangar II

Hand made artists’ book : 

rust fragments darned on linen with vintage thread, salt water crystals, digital print on aviation tissue.  

Found fragments of friable rust are encrusted with salt crystals, like the tears of those for whom the physicality of the hangar will never be the same. The delicate darning attempts to repair what time has destroyed and what can only be preserved in the memory.  Images of the hangar’s frailty are emphasised by translucent aviation paper, once used to construct the earliest flight.

8 stitches per inch

Hand made paper fragments with blind embossed inch squares, each hand sewn with linen thread, 8 stitches per inch.

Eight stitches per inch was the optimum stitch rate for the linen carapace on the Wellington Bomber.  The women who sewed were crucial, any deviation meant the canvas would tear away during flight.

“all I have left is time, 

and in the pale light I am still waiting.”

Vintage linen map fragments, thread, embroidery hoops.

Inspired by annotated aviation maps, the hoops reminiscent of propellers and planned bomb sites.  For those left behind, the stress of the unknown location and timing of bombing flights is alleviated by the repetitive action of stitching; the loose threads a tether to home.

“and when he flies at night I sit and sew and follow him in the map of my mind : every stitch drawing him back to me.” 

Vintage map fragments, thread, embroidery hoops.

installation:

Spore

I simply cannot resist, 

every year the mushrooms push their heads through the lawn I simply have to take one for a spore print.

Nothing I can make is so perfect as this natural phenomenon.

Spore print on vintage paper

Liminal Landscapes

These tiny books, folios of loose pages, 

is a liminal landscape.

A small rod of silver, used like a pencil traces line after line that cannot be erased. The repetitive motion lulling like the ocean, allowing the landscapes to develop from memory.  

All feel familiar, but the edge of memory cannot quite say where, all are unique.

Contained

As part of the 2014 Leeds International Artists Bookfair, Louise Atkinson ran a project called The Imaginary Museum.

These collections were part of my submission, 

hundreds of hand cut butterflies, crammed into jars and sorted by the most basic criteria.  

This is an exploration into what it means to be contained, without individualism or creativity.

(the above image was selected for The Imaginary Museum)

Aurelian

The aurelian collections were again born from a desire to read a book in a different way - I am very fond of the book as a physical object and here hundreds of butterfiles, caterpillars and chrysalis are hand cut and reassembled in the style of the Victorian collectors.

The book cover is converted into a box to house these very personal collections that have a feel of private wonder.

Under glass

Miniature worlds, condensed into a single sculpture that could be held in your palm.  

The inhabitants spill out, fragile and ethereal, not subject to the seasons or decay.

The History of a Tortoise : from the diary of naturalist Gilbert White who was very fond of this tortoise Timothy; allowing him to roam the garden and dig his hibernarium where he wished.

Meadow

rust and salt water

rust and salt water

unravel and darn

decay and preserve

glory and grief

tear and stitch

copper and paper

concrete and rain

oil and blood

memory and presence

linen and steel

enclose and disperse

rust and salt water : hand made book