In the Summer of 2022, whilst artist in residence at S1 Artspace in Sheffield, I had the opportunity to research the historic collections of Chatsworth House, in nearby Derbyshire. In consultation with their expert curatorial team, I looked at extraordinary paintings, sculptures, textiles, decorative arts, archival material as well as the Chatsworth House Theatre. This research inspired a new body of work in photography, using the camera-less technique of photograms. As I walked through the grand house, I instinctively took photographs with my phone, literally hundreds of them. I selected the most interesting ones among these images and developed translucent copies of them, proceeding to cut, collage, and combine them with opaque and semi-opaque objects such as necklaces and scarves, to create my compositions in the dark room.
Continuing to develop this project in partnership with my residency at Centre for Print Research (UWE Bristol), I decided to explore other material translations of these photographic images, by scanning them in high resolution and printing them onto fabrics, then displaying these as wall-based installations or on a folding-screen structure composed of multiple sections. Viewers are able to walk along and around the screen, seeing different images from different angles, on either side. My aim is to create a labyrinth of interrelated pictures, referencing both the maze in the Chatsworth Garden and the architectural layout of Park Hill Estate in Sheffield, where S1 Artspace is located. I wanted to create a rich dialogue between painting, photography, print and sculpture.
Early in the residency at CFPR, I worked with Rebecca Hill at the Digital Print Bureau to experiment with digital printing. This method allowed me to print at a larger scale on a range of natural fabrics; I loved becoming acquainted with many versions of silk, that noble material. Habotai, bamboo, silk tweed and crêpe de chine, all became familiar names. In addition, I was able to explore printing onto synthetic materials, such as polyester satins, chiffon, organza, by using a dye sublimation process, resulting in a variety of surfaces and effects.
I gave particular attention, both in my research and in my production process, to the biographies of certain female figures in the history of Chatsworth, women whose lives I found exemplary and compelling. This photogram is based on a portrait painted by John Medina of Christian Bruce, who is one of several notable and strong female figures in the Cavendish family. I was touched by how she, as a young widow, fiercely defended her children’s interests. The image exists both as a photogram and as a photogravure edition on Japanese silk.
This piece is now in the West Dean Collection, West Sussex, UK.
I think of hands as a symbol of creative labour, they feature in several of my photographic works.
With the help and guidance of CFPR master printer Laura Clarke-Oaten, I explored different printing methods such as photogravure and silk-screen. The first of these was completely new to me, and I was immediately drawn to how faithful it was to the subtle intricacies of a photograph, and yet looking more ‘embodied’, like a print. I found the coated polymer plates used for printing beautiful to look at too, with their strange shades of opalescent green.
Some of my photogravures feature plant forms, for example a fern and a few wild weeds, that I photographed whilst walking in the vast Chatsworth grounds. All photogravure images were initially mediated and recomposed by my photogram process.
This photogravure on silk is based on a sculpture of operatic soprano Henriette Sontag by Ludwig Wichmann.
This piece is an edition of ten; it consists of a 3D-printed shoe adorned with crystal shapes, covered in 22 karat gold leaf. It was made from a scan of a velvet slipper, part of a pair I found in a Sheffield charity shop while artist in residence at S1 Artspace. Georgiana Cavendish, another remarkable woman in the history of Chatsworth, was a keen collector of crystals, and I like referencing this interest of hers, combining it (in an incongruous, surreal way) with the idea of the humble slipper as a symbol of comfort and sedentary repose. Crystals form in nature over time, and I find their shapes very decorative. The gold leaf gives the sculpture a reflective luminosity.
I was also interested in making a three-dimensional piece in glass, reflecting on costume and attire. Approaching my project almost as the creation of a theatrical set, I wanted to use contemporary materials that could reference a complex history, incorporating various forms of ornamentation, and that could present versatile possibilities in terms of inhabiting a space. I found the properties of glass absolutely fascinating, how it can melt and flow, and like molten lava, eventually harden into a shape. It was equally mesmerizing to see how glass can act as a marbled vehicle for colour, and as a passage, a gateway for light.
Much of the work I made at CFPR is somewhere between the single, unique art object and the multiple, as I used image repetition and variation in different ways. The same woman’s portrait for example, can be seen in my project in a myriad of ways, printed on different fabrics, using different printing methods, and/or printed at a different scale. Also, producing a range of interrelated images to create a single whole, displayed as an installation, leads me to consider my project as a kind of meta-artwork. I am reminded of how, on a far grander scale of course, the collections at Chatsworth also impact the viewer as an orchestrated, complex ensemble, where everything is interconnected.