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From Periphery to Centre CARE FROM PERIPHERY TO CENTRE Elena Cologni in collaboration with Homerton College, University of Cambridge This publication can be found in digital format, and printed in a limited edition of 100, including the print RELATIONS of CARE by Elena Cologni December 2020 © the authors and 250Homerton College Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8PH Email: [email protected] Telephone: 01223 747069 https://homerton250.org/events/care-from-periphery-to-centre/ Homerton College is a Registered Charity No. 1137497 On the cover: detail of still from ‘THE NEW SCHOOL’ FILM, 1944. One of several surviving stills from a Crown Film Unit short information film shot at Homerton in 1944. CARE FROM PERIPHERY TO CENTRE Elena Cologni in collaboration with Homerton College, University of Cambridge 3 Page 3 Page CARE: FROM PERIPHERY TO CENTRE Elena Cologni’s artistic research looks at undervalued practices of care in society through people’s experiences of place. For this project, she collaborated with the 250 Archive Working Group in 2018 to respond to domestic, social and political dimensions of care in the work of Maud Cloudesley Brereton and Leah Manning, while researching the College’s archive and its architecture. The research was underpinned care ethics principles and a conversation with renowned care ethicist Virginia Held. A more intimate dimension is revealed through the selection of students’ items, as a snapshot of everyday life in an early 20th-century women’s College. This research unearths the College’s historic concern with, and contribution to, health, well-being and education. ELENA COLOGNI The exhibits resonate with Cologni’s aesthetic sensibility for their tactile and visual qualities, and underpin the artist’s sculptural installation designed in response to the 1914 Ibberson Gymnasium, and echoed in the Queen’s Wing veranda and lawn. The newly rehoused archive, and installation art as a medium for conveying its contents, are key developments in the College’s anniversary year. Responding to Homerton 250 themes of free-thinking and change, the installation shows how archives embody the past, but by critically informing the present can help shape the future, too. Elena Cologni has a PhD in Fine Art from the University of the Arts, Central Saint Martin’s College, London. She has an in(ter)disciplinary research approach and collaborates with academics from fields including psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science. Her work has previously been exhibited elsewhere across University of Cambridge departments and Colleges, as well as at prestigious national and international venues such as Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Karsi Sanat, Istanbul, and Oslo Kunstforening. She is currently a recipient of the Artist International Development Fund (British Council/ Arts Council England, 2018-19), and the Artist-Newsletter Bursary Award (2018). THE 250 ARCHIVE WORKING GROUP Peter Cunningham (educationalist and social historian) Melanie Keene (historian of science) Svetlana Paterson (archivist) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS University College London Library; Cambridge University Library; The Harlow Art Trust: Gibberd Gallery, Harlow. The project is part of Cambridge Festival of Ideas, was commissioned by Homerton College, and is kindly supported by the Moleskine Foundation. Contributors to the project also include Curator Gabi Scardi and care ethicist Virginia Held. A special thanks to Homerton College Principal Geoff Ward for his involvement and continuous support in the project. 5 Page 5 Page RESEARCH AND ART INTERVENTION CARE, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN BODY AND SPACE 11 LINES AND CIRCLES 15 CARE, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN STUDENT LIFE AND WORK 18 MANNING AND BRERETON’S POLITICS OF DOMESTICITY: CARE, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 23 CONVERSATIONS DOES CARING MATTER? Elena Cologni in conversation with Ayla van der Boor 30 CARE AND THE SOCIAL CONTRACT Virginia Held 33 ARCHITECTURE AND WELLBEING Peter Cunningham 36 TAKING CARE Melanie Keene 37 PRACTICES OF CARE IN ART Gabi Scardi 39 7 Page 7 Page RESEARCH AND ART INTERVENTION 9 Page 9 Page CARE, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN BODY AND SPACE Ibberson Building (1914) Herbert Ibberson Arts and Crafts with eclectic references, arched windows, decorative lion frieze. Created to accommodate expanding arts curriculum, studios, theatre and gymnasium, opening on to lawns for outdoor sport and dance. The arrangement of the display was inspired by archival photographs of the room, whose architectural design was punctuated by wooden panels corresponding to the areas in between the curved windows. On view are reproductions of the original items kept in the College Archive, as well as selected sport equipment, and a documentary footage of the research material from the College Archive. The newly produced rope sculptures refer back to the time when the space was used as a gym, as also do part of the 11 exhibits. Page 11 Page EXTRACT FROM THE HOMERTONIAN, NOVEMBER 1906. An evocative description from the College magazine of sporting life in the College. LEAVING THE IBBERSON BUILDING FOR A HOCKEY GAME, 1920S. Atmospheric photograph of students off to play in the College grounds, whatever the weather. GROUP PHOTO IN THE IBBERSON BUILDING, SHOWING GYM ROPES, AND ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS 13 STILL FROM ‘THE NEW SCHOOL’ FILM, 1944. Page 13 Page ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS FOR THE IBBERSON BUILDING, CA. 1913-14. Plans for the impressive new building, which was to be a home for art, pottery, and gymnastics in the College throughout the 20thC (above). RELATIONS OF CARE, ELENA COLOGNI (2018, PAIR OF MOBILE SCULPTURES, STEEL RODS, JUTE ROPES, 2.5 X 2.5 X 2 METRES EACH). Photographs courtesy of ARTUK.org. These are now on display on a permanent basis. LINES AND CIRCLES Queen's Wing (1957), Seely and Paget, Modernist with classical features, arch and heraldic sculpture. Built as student residence, refurbished 2017 by Martindales to include gym and dance studio, offices and college archive. The Verandah includes Cologni’s installation of what could be regarded as a contemporary frieze titled LINES AND CIRCLES (SUPPORT), (steel, aluminium, vinyl, 2.50x20 meters) The text printed on the sculptures as well as on the large windows alludes to the term care as support, and support is referred to in architectural terms, including: column, pilaster, stand… 15 Page 15 Page LINES AND CIRCLES (SUPPORT), (steel, aluminium, vinyl, 2.50x20 meters, detail) Two of the sculptures designed for the frieze ‘pollinated’ across gardens and lawn, along the marked axis to the Ibberson Building, form the installation titled LINES AND CIRCLES (PROXIMITIES) 17 Page 17 Page CARE, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN STUDENT LIFE AND WORK Principal’s entrance (1880s), Giles, Gough and Trollope High Victorian style with pointed arch and doubled doors, leading to grand staircase for Principal’s residence as head of the community. Wall displays record two eminent Homertonians and their national contributions to health and care. The display includes documents from the archive recording aspects of care, health and wellbeing in student life, and Cologni’s artistic response CARE IS RELATIONAL, AND CARE INSTRUCTIONS, ELENA COLOGNI (2018), 2 FROM SERIES OF WOVEN LABELS. (the first of which is inspired by Virginia Held’s writings, and the latter by Maud Brereton’s revolutionary position at the beginning of the 20th century, when she sustained that domestic labour should be paid) INDOOR GYMNASTICS (1944/5). Three photographs of scenes from Homerton’s past, showing students participating in gymnastics classes. Learning about health and moving the body was an important part of historical curricula. Visit the Ibberson building for a further display of pictures and objects related to the former gymnasium (now Combination Room). TRAFFORD SOAP BAR (1930S/40S). Used for washing clothes and scrubbing floors, the aroma of Trafford soap pervaded the College. Students were trained in basic hygiene to apply when teaching in schools. This care extended to social work, volunteering in vacations at settlements for poor children. SOUVENIR OR MEMOIR ALBUM (1880). Example of an album commemorating students’ names and experiences while at Homerton. OPEN-AIR GYMNASTICS (1950). Four photographs of gym apparatus being taken out to the College grounds 19 in the summer. Page 19 Page SOUVENIR OR MEMOIR ALBUM (1912). Many of these student albums of memories and tokens survive, and several are gathered in this exhibition. Students handed their often very elaborate albums round amongst their friends, each inscribing a page to celebrate friendships, an insight into the close-knit life of the College. SEALED SECRET (C. 1860). An embossed envelope, sealed with the message: “Yes, but ask True Love”. Includes a coloured floral design on the reverse. SOUVENIR OR MEMOIR ALBUM (1900). Depicts kindness in serving friends food at table and providing cocoa for them at bedtime. “Things by which I shall remember Katie”. CONTENTS OF A NEEDLEWORK BOX (1861-2). Bought for 12s 6d, this box belonged to Emma Hunter, a student at Homerton College in the early 1860s, next to EMMA HUNTER, PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT (1861-2). STUDENT HANDWORK BOOK (1917). A book in which students made patterns for dressmaking. Dressmaking was an important skill for students in their adult lives, and in preparing a younger generation of girls at school for home-making and motherhood. MOTHER’S TOOLS, ELENA COLOGNI (2018, Composition Of 4: wood, steel, custom-made fabric labels, printing tools from the artist’s mother’s embroidery kit, 20cmx20cm each, the artist’s collection). The labels read: CARE AS SUPPORT, RESPONSIVENESS TO NEED, PERSOMNS ARE RELATIONAL, UBUNTU. 21 Page 21 Page NOTES ON CARE, ELENA COLOGNI (2018, graphite prints from the tools in previous artwork, pencil, laser print paper on moleskine japanese album, with inserts of fabric designs from the Architectural Review Magazine, June 1936, 21cm x 120 cm, Homerton Archive Collection). Another version of the same is now in the Moleskine Art Collection. LEAH MANNING AND MAUD CLOUDESLEY BRERETON’S POLITICS OF DOMESTICITY: CARE, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING The display, located in Homerton College Principal’s office lobby included the following items: LEAH MANNING, WHAT I SAW IN SPAIN (1935).
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