Foundation Degree Final year site-specific project in partnership with Museum

Introduction

Boo Brittle Trudi Harvey

Pat Cripps Jackie McNeice

Eileen Dickinson Sian Thomas

Kate Grimes Julie Willmott Stevie-Leigh Harmer

westkent.ac.uk/maidstonemuseum

Photography by Nadia Needham

0852 Introduction The Foundation Degree students of West College have been teaming up with Maidstone Museum since 2008, as part of their vocational and professional Fine Art Practice studies. The aim is to give students a work based learning opportunity of collaborating with the Museum and its staff. Working to the specifications of the Museum staff, the students are required to produce artworks influenced by the myriad of ideas generated by the collections, history and even the fabric of the buildings themselves.

This year, the students have created individual pieces of work that are a direct response to the Museum’s brief of “Curioser and Curioser”, whilst also incorporating their own art practice. These are to be exhibited within the larger exhibition of Maidstone Museum’s colour themed cabinets of curiosity.

The students and myself would like to thank the Museum staff for all their support and enthusiasm, and to Nadia Needham for design and photography, enabling us to produce this catalogue.

Jane Hamilton Course Tutor

For further information on all courses offered at the College, visit:westkent.ac.uk To go directly to our Art & Design university courses, please go to: westkent.ac.uk/university-courses-in-kent/he-art-and-design To contact a course tutor, please email: [email protected] or [email protected] For Maidstone Museum, go to: museum.maidstone.gov.uk Angharad Brittle HOPE - a 3D printed ‘readymade’ vase

I am alarmed by the irrefutable evidence from the scientific community about changes to our climate. This 3D printed vase is organic in form, symbolising the material’s origin from a natural and sustainable plant source; a biodegradable bioplastic called PLA, which can reduce our carbon footprint. In a utopian future the ONLY place you would see a ‘plastic’ object would be in a museum, as unlike now, all plastic will have been recycled or will have been destroyed.

The vase’s white colour and classical lines symbolise its purity and, with its modern and futuristic shape, it represents a way forward: HOPE.

Instagram: angharadbrittle email: [email protected] Pat Cripps Dogs of Hope

My inspiration came from a pair of imperial Chinese lion dogs, which I saw in the Maidstone Museum. Traditionally they represented ying and yang and one faced left, the other right. They were believed to bring good fortune to the household when positioned at the entrance.

My western-influenced versions are made of clay and are embellished in a playful and humorous manner – bestowing their much- needed blessings for good fortune on a troubled world. Eileen Dickinson Preciousness of Life

Having visited the museum and felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of artefacts and treasures I was keen to respond as creatively as I could.

I was particularly drawn to, and impressed by, the care and techniques given to the collections in storage; how they were meticulously wrapped and preserved in special paper and kept in a carefully monitored environment for longevity.

On one of my visits I could not help but notice the plight of the homeless, literally outside the museum, in the nearby park. How could I ignore these people wrapped in their sleeping bags? We should be practising the same careful nurturing and preservation, within our own society, towards each other. Kate Grimes The Great Wave (after Hokusai)

We found an original of Hokusai’s woodprint ‘The Great Wave of Kanagawa’ in the museum’s archives. Wow! It inspired me to create my ‘Great Wave’ in cast glass.

I like to transform materials - pushing them into new forms or to behave in unexpected ways so that they reveal new perspectives. Light and colour are also important in my work.

Here I have taken hard, crystal clear, flat glass and heated it in a kiln to create this wave about to crash down. [email protected] Stevie-Leigh Harmer Peek-a-Boo

Peek-a-boo is about imagination. It’s about the relationship between childhood and adulthood, how we gradually lose our imagination, as we grow older; and how we might regain it if we teach ourselves how to play again. The blue-tinted spectacles also exhibited in this room, coloured in order to correct visual impairment, inspired this piece. Alternate colours of yellow, amber and brown were historically prescribed for people with syphilis, whilst pink and purple are used today to help those suffering with dyslexia.

Peek-a-Boo’s faerie is seen through a lens held by a child...or can you see it too?

Credits for the images used in my work: Faerie - Anna Ignatieva Flowers - 123RF Trudi Harvey Soul Jar - Tsukumogami

The inspiration for this piece came from the Japanese collection, focusing on the ceramics and the lost story of the women within that country.

The jar is a Tsukumogami, a spirit that envelopes household objects. This jar contains the spirits of all the forgotten women of Japan. The red represents the blood that has birthed a nation. The gold is their souls crying out for recognition.

Carved into the jar are the double Sai’s, a Japanese weapon which represents their united power as they spill over to our plain of existence.

@tahabstraction Instagram.com/tahabstraction Jackie McNeice Mind Lock

Mind Lock is a of a brain. Made with resin, with inset whole and broken keys, made from resin, paper, acetate and plaster. I chose this as I have suffered with my mental health for most of my life.

The key symbolises locking away memories and the broken ones signify when your mind feels cluttered and you can’t focus. The blue/ green colour symbolises that most days your mind feels like the sea, unpredictable. The red signifies when you are having a really bad day and are struggling to cope. Sian Thomas Deaccession

Historically, most pieces displayed in museums have been obtained from the collections of wealthy white men and are not a true representation of our collective past.

How many stories have been lost or forgotten over time because of this?

Instagram: sian_thomas_art Julie Willmott Birchbark Cloth

Maidstone Museum holds a large collection of artefacts donated by Julius Brenchley which he accumulated on his worldwide travels. Two that caught my attention were a bark cloth dress and bark cloth curtain from Savage Island, .

I discovered bark cloth is made by beating inner tree bark into sheets.

I explored the idea of incorporating bark and fabric. I made ‘Birchbark Cloth’ by machine embroidering birch bark onto cotton fabric creating a piece which is aesthetically pleasing but could also be used as a covering of some description if made on a larger scale.