Emily Bronte published Wuthering Heights in 1847 initially under the name Ellis Bell, and died in the same year age 30.
Currently at number 13 in the Penguin list of 100 best books, Wuthering Heights, discordant, fragmented, tortuous, obsessive and romantic is firmly situated in the rain swept moors of upland Britain.
Yesterday afternoon set in misty and cold
Opening lines, Chapter 2, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Charcoal and chalk on Fabriano paper
1500cm x 2500cm
The Revolving Year
Acrylic paint and pen on stripped pine
Stoneware cat underglaze colours with transparent overglaze.
Two textured stoneware slab pots : kasmir blue and copper oxide
A Pennine Sheep visited by a Bird
Bronze 19cm x 10cm x 8cm
I made this when I was a student, but couldn’t complete the casting because my dad died and I had to rush off to arrange his funeral. The wax model sat on a shelf for ages accumulating dust, wax is sticky stuff. In the end in order to prevent it getting inadvertently melted or squashed I had it cast in bronze. I played around with the patina a bit when it came back, filing off some here and there then returned to a slightly more prominent shelf. Where it sat for years until the opportunity arose to exhibit in a show called Northern Fringe: the Mystery of Yorkshire in (nearly) 100 Objects. This is my Yorkshire reply to Object number 73, a small gold Inca llama from the BBC series a History of the World in 100 Objects.
And this is where the idea came from
Northern Fringe:The Mystery of Yorkshire in (nearly) 100 Objects is on at the Upstairs gallery, Dean Clough, Halifax,
HX3 5AX from today September 8th to September 24th.
This work began in the company of books. I like the qualities of used things, in this case the thumbed pages and coffee stains of their history, the fluctuating choices of typeface and illustration which make them of their time. That time was actually my parents’ time so I am transported back to the 1940s and 50s via the design of a book cover. Then there was the pleasure of meeting some of the interviewees, taking photographs of their photographs, having a little glimpse into their first encounters with books and over and over again in their recorded conversations arose, with great affection, the role that libraries played.
A palace of words,
A place of peace and quiet
A store of knowledge
A step into a new future
In the early years of the twentieth century in the library of the past before mobile phones, computers and the internet will we find the seeds of the library of the future?
This work grew out of memories, stories, images, photos, transcripts and audio.
Cobbled together and placed inside old picture frames. I wanted the frame to be part of the work rather than just a display device, the grey is to link them as one work and reinforce the hazy memory aspect. I like old frames, these ones are typical designs of the early and mid 1900’s. Although the frames are of differing sizes the aperture and colour of the mounts are identical. Here are two framed pieces of work temporarily hung in my dining room for Reading Sheffield AGM.
