'Significant Features'

Some months ago I got involved in planning an exhibition of the work produced during the 'Photography and the Archive' module (see previous posts). MA and BA Art and Design and students from the School of Architecture responded to aspects of the Bournville Village Trust Archive. After several meetings, we are now starting to make some decisions about the exhibition which will be entitled 'Significant Features'. A curatorial statement has been written:

Significant Features has been curated in response to a study of Wendy Sarkissian’s book Social Mix: The Bournville Experience. It was published in 1978 by Bournville Village Trust to find out how Bournville’s residents found living in the model village.

The exhibition will bring together work by students at BIAD, along with contemporary responses to questions that Social Mix poses and material from Bournville Village Trust’s archive, to explore aspects of the residential experience, ideas of ‘home’ and what it is that creates a sense of community.

As well as selecting artworks, we also hope to exhibit material from both the Cadbury Archive and the Bournville Village Trust Archive. Yesterday we started to consider the layout of the show, grouping work to link with statements from the original source publication 'Social Mix'.

One other plan is to create an interactive survey map based on people's ideas of home and community. An inspiration for this comes from a display at 'Birmingham Made Me Expo' a couple of years back.

We also hope to get hold of a copy of 'When We Build Again' a film commissioned by BVT. A clip from the film can be seen here.

Exhibition Ideas - Street Views

I have been considering how to give my prints and the associated stories a 'sense of place' when exhibiting them at the Dovecote. A few weeks ago I photographed each house on one side of Salisbury Road from the Park gate to the traffic lights. I then had these enlarged up and spliced them together to create one long image. I am currently experimenting with transferring these images onto paper that can be displayed along the walls of my exhibition space.

The various stories told through the print pieces would be displayed adjacent to a significant location.
For example the 'Furse Family' print would be shown next to the image of 36 Salisbury Road where the original photo was found.

I need to consider how I want to deal with the cars that inevitably appear in the images. I think I would prefer to take them out completely so as to not fix the street view in any particular time frame.

Wood Engraving

A couple of weeks ago we had a print demonstration of wood engraving techniques. I have been very interested in this techniques for some time. I particularly like the work of David Gentleman and Clare Leighton (see below).

 I have been experimenting with a small bock of lemon wood to create an oak leaf and acorn motif.

I need to work on the technique a lot more but I would like to create a series of these blocks that could be used by visitors to my exhibition to print their own impressions of Moseley. This would be a good way of engaging people in some print based activities without having to have a press available.

The Furse Family 2

I produced some more prints from the copper plate of The Furse Family. This time I 'over-wiped' the plate and then used watercolour washes to add tints of colour.

I liked the control I could have over the placement of the colour and how it allowed me to draw attention to Alan, the story teller, or to Florence who particularly struck me when I first saw the original photo.

The Furse Family

Over the last few weeks, I have been working on a print based on a photograph that was found in the loft of No.36 Salisbury Road, and has been in the Moseley Local History Archive since the 1980s (see previous post 4.11.13). I was able, with the help of the Library of Birmingham staff, to find out who the family were. Henry and Florence Furse moved to Salisbury Road in about 1919 from School Road. They had three sons, William, Alan and Claude. The two eldest sons both served during the First World War. By a great stroke of luck, I discovered many entries from Alan's war diaries in 'Birmingham Pals' by Terry Carter. Sadly William was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, and there is a very moving quote from Alan about how he discovered his brother had died and how he found the place where he fell.

 After completing an initial hard ground line etch, I then added an aquatint etched in six stages to create the layers of tone.

I used the technique known as 'a la poupée' to add a range of colour direct to the plate. I started to realise the significance of the colour placement and how it could help emphasise different aspects of the story behind the print.

I also completed a small drypoint and mezzotint print, which depicted the photograph Alan took after he had erected a wooden cross on his brother William's grave.

Helen Peyton

Helen Peyton is a printmaker from Skipton. She has been an artist in residence at the Craven Museum and gallery since 2011. She has been running a project called Smart Gallery, that started in February, in which visitors bring along objects with interesting back stories. Helen uses these to produce her wonderful reduction lino prints.

For more information see http://revealingthehiddenarchive.blogspot.co.uk/

Marx-Lambert Collection, Compton Verney

Enid Marx (1902-1998) was one of Britain's foremost designers. She produced textiles, wallpaper, book jackets, was an illustrator, painter and a prolific collector of folk and popular art. She would often use objects from her collection to inspire her designs. She donated her collection to Compton Verney. They have recently raised funds to be able to display Enid's objects and the work they inspired alongside each other.

The gallery is presented as if it were Enid's own living room, with her wallpaper on the walls hung with items from her collection and her own prints and paintings. A wooden sideboard is used to store an interactive display encouraging visitors to play with pattern blocks.