Works produced by artists as part of the South West
Heritage Trust, ‘Muse: Makers in Museums’ is now on
show as a group exhibition at The Museum of Somerset features
work by Emma Molony, Jess Davis, Jacky Oliver, Sean Harris, Dorcas Casey,
Catlin Heffernan, Taja and Andrea Oke who each previously exhibited their work
in the museum they worked with for Devon Arts Week or Somerset Art Weeks. The museums, Axminster Museum, Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum, Museum of Dartmoor Life
[Okehampton] in Devon; and Axbridge
and District Museum, Bruton
Museum, Chard and District Museum
and Wells and Mendip Museum in
Somerset.
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| Sean Harris at Wells and Mendip Museum |
Prior to hearing and seeing about ‘Muse’ I had little
awareness of any of these smaller museums yet alone what any of them may
contain; For example, how many people know that the Bruton Museum holds a desk
used by the American writer, John Steinbeck? Or that he lived near Bruton in
1959? I speculate that I may not be alone in thinking this.
From a PR point of view this exhibition has certainly been a success in
highlighting the benefits that the arts can bring at raising awareness and
offering new ways of informing the general public to engage with their
collections and the stories they have to offer. From Maritime, Bronze Age and
Archaeological history to the history of tin mining, quarrying and farming on
Dartmoor and carpets in Axminster! There is a rich and slightly daunting amount
of material that each of the artists working on this project had at their
disposal. I recall my own experiences working with a curator at the Somerset
Heritage Centre sourcing old farming agricultural tools to draw from, the enthusiasm
and knowledge of the items within the collection was truly inspiring. It also
made me realise the challenge faced by each of the artists on this project to
somehow take their experiences of these collections, artefacts, stories and produce something from them.
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| Jess Davis at The Museum of Dartmoor Life |
The resulting work made is pleasingly well-crafted and reflects
the variety of mediums from its makers. The relationships with each of the
museums the artists worked with is demonstrated in the process by which each of
them has had to select and edit artefacts, documents, contexts, processes,
stories and/or ideas that are relevant to their respective practices. Emma Molony was well selected as an
artist who is a printmaker and has made her own wallpaper to be situated
working with Axminster Heritage Centre, who are well known for their carpets.
The resulting monoprints takes inspiration from patterns of their textiles. Sean
Harris uses his practice as an animator and film maker to produce
flip-book boxes of bones at the Wells and Mendip Museum. Viewers are given a
torch as they propel the handle operating the flip-books housed inside dark
wooden boxes evoking the caves from Wookey Hole in which Hyena bones were
discovered; the processes of excavation and illumination used as a metaphor for
the element of discovery in archaeology. The use of low-technology in response
to these artefacts is also an interesting idea as it brings an element of two
sets of histories, that of the evolution of animation and the history of the
bones it depicts. The use of technology
is present again in Andrea Oke’s intricate and exquisitely hand-made papercut outs
that also feature a QR code for viewers to interact with and access an audio
recording of text taken from ancient documents at Axbridge and District Museum.
The audio is very engaging but its place as a QR code visually within the
interior-design pleasing surrounding papercut image feels a little bit
superfluous.
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| Taja at Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum |
Jess Davis’ lino prints of the evolving landscape of Dartmoor depict scenes from its past, some appearing almost appear other-worldly. She also has a series of dry-points depicting objects that respond to the landscape. Jacky Oliver makes wire and enamel
studies of boat models from the Teign Heritage Centre that are an interesting
cross-over between the illusionary depth of a blueprint and making those lines
out of wire that become both a 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional representation
of the original. Elsewhere in the exhibition Dorcas
Casey’s ‘life-size’primordial crocodile model with scales made from
antique jelly moulds is an imaginative addition to the natural history area of
the Somerset Museum, creating its own mythology and talking-point and is both
funny and unsettling at the same time.
Context plays an important part on viewing these works
and some of them I feel may have lost their understanding in being taken from
their original corresponding museum and put in this group show, Taja’s
paper clay tableware pieces being one example. Beautifully made and seemingly
precariously balanced together in a ball reminiscent of a prop from the Mad
Hatter’s tea party in Alice in Wonderland; Taja’s pieces were originally shown
in hanging on original iron hooks in the context of the Kingsbridge Cookworthy
Museum’s Victorian kitchen. Its meaning and visual presence look a bit lost
without the place or artefacts that inspired them in the vast, non-domestic
space of the Museum of Somerset. Catlin Heffernan’s textile
installation similarly struggles here to compete with its surroundings rather
than work with it.
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| Dorcas Casey at Bruton Museum |
My only other reservation of this exhibition is that it is
almost too ‘nice’, everything is made to a high standard but it feels all a bit
safe, there is nothing particularly edgy, moving or resonate revealed from what
the artists have taken inspiration from. The works presented here offer
alternative ways at highlighting the existence of the artefacts/stories in
these museums rather than engaging or telling us much of anything new or
forming a new opinion of. Maybe the intention of the title of the project being
‘makers in museums’ as opposed to ‘artists’ shifts the role to something more production-based?
It is worth noting that since this projects inception the artists involved have
kept a blog and also ran
workshops; their individual journeys and interactions with staff and the public
are very interesting, but these are additional things artists offer rather than
possibly being the main event, as they could and perhaps deserve to be?
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| Emma Molony at Axminster Heritage Museum |
Unfairly my expectations are probably too high but I
think it is important to always push the limits of bravery and ambition in what
museums, audiences and arts organisations select or enable artists to do. What
this project importantly does achieve is in opening up the dialogue
between the arts and museum collections both very accommodating and respectful
of the other and offers an example on how they might work together. For artists
it is an informed and rich source material and different context to work within
and for museums it is the opportunity to engage in new ways in which their
collections can be interpreted and accessed. I would just ask that they
continue to do so courageously.
‘Muse: Makers in
Museums’ can be seen at The Museum of Somerset until 3rd February
2018
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