A wig in a bottle

glass bottle, wig, hair dressing scissors.
30x10cm
2008

Submissions for a new show

view through a half-tone plate

The next show at the museum will be from the 30th June until the 1st of July. New acquisitions will be displayed alongside the show entitled 'Your Eyes Have Been Opened And Now You Can Not Close Them'.
Submissions are now being considered.

Shadows of the Ascent of Man

From the museums' collection of shadows.
2008

someone in the museum

Always winter but never christmas

.....through the fur coats ,past the lampost, snow underfoot in the deep winter that has engulfed the Museum for Objects of Vertu. There will be tea and toast , presents and maybe some turkish delight.

Welcome all you sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.....

the view from Narnia

step out from the wardrobe

museum for objects of vertu   Narnia 2008

mr.tumnus

never christmas

sons of Adam daughters of Eve

a gift from the snow queen

Dust Jacket

The second exhibition at the museum was inspired by an old copy of  'The Voyage of the Beagle'

museum for objects of vertu   'dust jacket'  2008

.....it had no cover. The following artists provided one.....

audrey reynolds

mathew robins

piers jamson

rachael matthews

richard gray

rosie cooper

tim spooner

Memento Hominem

The first exhibition at the museum was called 'Memento Hominem'. I have always been fascinated by the private collectors cabinets of the 17th century and in particular those that had personal objects, ones that only had meaning to the owner. The museum has been heavily influenced by these so I asked five artists to respond with their own 'living' artefacts........

mathew robbins   'barbra' 2008

raechel matthews  'a trip to the virgin islands' 2008

richard gray  'rosa' 1994

rosie cooper  'the forsaken woodland show' 2008

piers jamson  'untitled' 2008

fleur oakes  'stuff ' 208

the recontextualised shape of neo liberalism

small cardboard box containing numbered phials of paste gems .

5x12cm.

2007

The quiet living room

wallpaper, toffee tin, straw, fob watch case, china cupid, parrot feathers

  The sound of a house occupied by an elderly woman is profound. It sits with you , gets up and follows you. You walk through it. Even the sound of a tv has little effect , its' reach extending only so far as the door , like the light from a fire. A radio has even less effect ;you can listen to a radio so quietly that you are only really hearing it in the back of your head.
 You sit and remember the past , turning the pages of your memory and reading them. You become reluctant to move because the sound of the house is all. Sometimes you make a cup of tea or boil an egg. You have to close the kitchen door lest the sounds of boiling water or gentle chink of china disturb the house. You and your house are in a deep meditative state.
 At dusk , the best time in the house , you can walk around. You can stretch and look at the things on the dressing table ;the glass trinket trays and faded  powder boxes. Your bedroom is almost foreign territory now because you mostly live in the living room.

The Pickle Fork of Gentility

wallpaper, greetings card, ring box, china brooches, pickle fork, perfume bottle.

20x30cm.

2006

The loss of everything

victorian photograph, victorian lace, victorian purse, one farthing not two, seal in box.

20x30cm.

2006.

private collection

Tea for Two

canary show cage, broken gramaphone record, handkerchief, broken tea cup and handle, ash, decaying edwardian beaded tunic, newspaper article, rose made from silver foil, paper

Sunday Roast

wallpaper, bible, pheasant feathers, knife, fork.

20x30cm.

2006

Souvenir from the Emerald City

victorian photograph , glass flower frog, jay feathers.

20x30cm.

2006

Miriam

pre-war lamp stand , electric cable and plug, light bulb,honey.

30x15cm.

2007

krokeboke

pill boxes, tape measure, lichen, pin tin, neatly folded handkerchiefs, victorian scraps, cutlery

box.

10x30cm.

2007

list machine

screen printing roller, shopping lists, thread.

20x30cm.

2007

little

suitcase, 1930's petticoat, photograph, chocolate boxes, mummified blue tit, lost glove, broken pearl necklace, wasps nest, pen nibs, bow tie and instructions, pins , fur , ring box, cotton reel , silver coin, paper.

50x75cm.

2005

Museum interior

The museum measures approximately 4'x5' and is generally very dark. The walls are dark green , the small shelves black and the floor dark unstained wood. Each shelf is 40x20cm with an candle set into the front.

In Waiting

1930's leather travel case , knife ,fork, gas bill.

20x30cm.

2006


Can we ever be alone?
 Not now it seems, not if you want to live like everyone else does.We all seem to want the same things , a herding instinct maybe.
Even if you eschew a life lived through tv and branded goods you still need the basics.Even if you cook from scratch and don't get caught in a consumer loop.
You still have to leave the house,pay utilities,sign your name.There are photos of you, videos even, people know you, talk about you, remember you.
It could be said that until no-one remembers you any more you have a certain immortality.And if you write your name on your pictures who knows how far into the future you could be known.
But what of your ancestors.A lot of people have photos of great grandparents , the legacy of Victorian technology, but not many.
We know nothing of our forebears.There is a genetic history and we are the living record of the past.It has been proven that certain bloodlines are carried with unusual surnames. People in one country somehow related to the most unlikely people in another.We generally know nothing of the lives of those who gave us life though we all share 20% of the same genes.
If you are the last in your family, what then ?
What if you were the only child of only children; no cousins , nieces ,nephews. What if you had lived alone in the house you born in and as you grew older your family died, friends married, moved away, died. No-one knows you, the only photos of you are in your own albums;smiling from the past, a ghost in your own life.
How many lives have passed like this ? Is it so terrible ? You are rare, in fact you have something many desire...privacy.

Forget About Me

broken glass jar, rose stems, 1920's wedding photo , 1930's photo album, photograph of old lady, fragment of cine film of unknown woman, dead dragonfly,

20x35cm.

2007



 An old lady lives in a decaying  house. She has lived there since she was little. It is an entire universe of one person's existence. When her parents died the house passed to her ; the solicitor , now dead ,gave her all the appropriate documents and she went back home. There was no wake, no-one to ask after her. She just went home. Her house now.
There is gas and water but no electricity. She never had it installed ,or rather her parents didn't. Except they weren't her parents. They took her in. A young girl with no past and they had no children and they left her the house. No-one knows that now.