Jill Brown - Multi Media Artist
Photography Through Surfaces and Materials
I find the whole aspect of research for a project as exciting as the final outcome. From spending time in the archives, the libraries to handling exquisite objects, it is such a delight. Whilst it is easy to think the digital era makes research much quicker, more often than not, simple detective work enables you to pull the threads together or set you off in a totally new direction and leads you to asking more questions!
Volunteering at The Silk Mill in Macclesfield
Volunteering with the History Hunters at the Silk Museum is an absolute privilege. The archives haven't been reviewed for many years and our role is to catalogue the many boxes, and work with the curators on their various projects. Each week is a surprise as to what a box will reveal, whether it be fabrics, historical documents about the town and its mills and businesses , or an unknown artist, whose work we are able to bring to life.
Some of the silk scarves & hankies found to commemorate royal events such as the various Coronations
The Silk Museum has an extensive archive of pattern books which need to be catalogued. A whole new project awaits!
Smardale Gill, Cumbria
The newspaper archive from 1860-1900 was paramount in the research for the Smardale project. What specific aspects did I learn?
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The names of workers and families synonymous with the line. Forgotten in history but deserving of a place in it now.
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Hunting with hounds was a Victorian pastime, they even arrived by train to hunt in the locality. The hunting reports even provided names of the dogs themselves.
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The Victorian text was beautifully written, and would stand up well against the travel journals witnessed in todays papers.
Anni Albers & The Victoria and Albert Museum
As part of my history of art module, I focused and became fascinated on the work of female Bauhaus textile
artist Anni Albers (1899-1994) ( Josef & Anni Albers Foundation) and specifically her work 'Black, White, Gold'. As a student I was able to secure access to the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. An experience in many aspects, not only to access the works of the artist, but the whole concept of curation and conservation in such a world famous museum.
Land Art- A lasting Legacy? with focus on the work of Andy Goldsworthy
If you know where to look in rural Cumbria, you can't help but love the 'Sheepfolds' by the British sculpture and photographer, Andy Goldsworthy. Sheepfolds were synonymous with extensive sheep farming in the Cumbrian landscape as both a pen and shelter for the animals. However, as modern farming developed the sheepfolds became obsolete and abandoned and it these remote folds that Goldsworthy often sought out for his work.
This use of dry-stone walls often dominate Goldsworthy’s work and he sees “walls are physically the expression of movement in stone’’ (Goldsworthy 1997). Over the centuries walls have been a feature of farming and the land, representing a barrier or point of conflict.
