The first part of Echoes in Enamel is now installed at the Museum in the Park, Stroud. www.museuminthepark.org.uk
I have been fortunate enough to have been awarded an Arts Council Grant to make 4 new pieces of work over 3 years responding to the Museums First World War collection.
I am taking my inspiration from local men and women in Stroud and the part they played in the conflict, at the front both home and away.The first story I am telling is about the women who found themselves in a new environment.
From Kitchen to Factory is inspired by a photograph album of
female munitions workers at TH & J Daniels in 1918. It is a
beautiful record of women working almost certainly for the first time outside
of their own homes, yet the images show an interesting juxtaposition of women
dressed in the same sort of clothing they may have worn for cleaning and
cooking in, yet they are operating complicated industrial machinery.
I wanted to show the contrast between home and industry for these women, the similarities and the differences. My substrate is cutlery and the odd spanner.
Ceramic transfers provided me with the narrative.
These I fired together to create a collection which would hang as a group.
I want to compare and contrast the machinery the women used in the factory with domestic machines used in the home.
I have used gum arabic transfer making a series of labels of period domestic appliances to hang along side the enamel.
Can you tell what these machines are? They echo the industrial versions so well.
Monday 2nd March, the big install. With lots of help and encouragement from Alexia, Documentation & Collections Officer and Fern, the construction of many pieces to make one, began.
There was much debate.
Lots of adjustment.
Placing and replacing. But never a cross word.
The piece is now installed and ready for visitors to look and touch.
Placed in the foyer of this lovely Museum until the end of April.
Thankyou Museum in the Park for all your support and encouragement, also Stroud District Council and Arts Council England for your financial support.
If you get the opportunity to see the installation, please leave a comment on the blog as I have to gather feed back as part of the grant award, so become part of the project.
I will be making a personal appearance to talk about the installation in the Easter holidays so keep an eye on my Facebook page for the date https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sue-Brown/1478939815714857
3 comments:
Congratulations - the work looks wonderful!
I shall try to make the journey to see this and will definitely leave feedback. How wonderful to have access to such a precious archive. Hard work I know but what joy to develop ideas from it.
I was able to see this over the last week. The hanging is beautiful and has hints of knitting/crochet patterns in its formation, or of lace bobbins on a cushion. I was really taken with the moth-eaten spoons, an added element of fragility on a utensil normally so reliable and dependable. Much like the women themselves.
Well done on this evocative display, I look forward to the next installment.
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