This coming April 1st is the date sheduled for an exciting event… A sharing of research and development for my Site-specific project, at Innerpeffray Library, Perthshire.
Since first visiting Innerpeffray library two years ago, I have become more and more absorbed in the incredible wealth of history and human experience of this site. The conception of this project began on my first visit to the library in 2021 and has been developing and building gradually since, from my VACMA funded research within the library through to my current stage of development. The project is now at a point where, having worked through the earlier research, I have found what I feel are key stories and details to focus my attention on which will be the central narratives for a final exhibition of work within the site.
I have been playing with approaches to displaying research material, drawing attention to images and shapes which connect to the key narratives. Photographs, Drawings, digitally printed collages and a collection of objects will form part of the sharing of research, along with Screen Printed Textile samples detailing the beginnings of the Textile Pieces I will go on to create. This Sharing exhibition is intended to allow visitors an insight into the design and development process, a mid point within a project, before the production of the polished final stage of exhibiting. It is also an opportunity for visitors to view and discover some of the library’s content and history in a new setting and within a new framework. An Artists talk will also be delivered as part of the sharing event, watch this space for the official announcement…
My work through Theatre, Textile Design for film and an upbringing in the world of antiques and countless visits to historic sites as a child, have paved the way for my current direction as an Artist, Designer and Maker. As I continue to work through the various pieces of research gathered, I continue to discover new intriguing details and new lines of inquiry appear, I feel like Miss Marple in her Art School years before she took up detecting. This project has allowed opportunity for the exciting and fortunate experience of becoming absorbed in learning and that wonderful feeling of wanting to know more and explore further.
While studying extracts from Edmund Spensers’ The Shepheards Kalender’ 1611, I found myself wanting to know more and more about this work in particular, to understand the Authors intention and the way in which the book would have been viewed and talked about in its day. While pouring over these treasured books I am though faced with my greatest challenge, knowing when to step away from each line of enquiry, there are endless stories and details to be discovered once you start looking. These ideas on perspective however, feed into my interest of the world view of the earlier borrowers of the Innerpeffray Library, specifically during the period of the Scottish Enlightenment.
The ‘Father of the Enlightenment’ William Robertson’s ‘The history of the reign of Emperor Charles V’ (1769) was the most borrowed book from Innerpeffray Library, within this book he discusses the formation of society in Europe, a hugely important and influential work. Through these such works that we know the borrowers were viewing, we build an image of their Innerpeffray and their wider world view during the early modern period. We imagine their view from Innerpeffray, filled with their interests, ideals, fears, values, hero’s and heroines. From the Early Modern period of history as it moves away from the Middle ages, into the Renaissance and then into the late modern period, the site of Innerpeffray, the Library and its borrowers are witness to this period of history, transition and enlightenment.
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