Nana’s Cabinet

A contemporary fine art exploration of the social history of a town through personal objects and archives

“Objects have power in and of themselves, but also a power in contact with us that is collaboratively created.” Julietta Singh in “No Archive Will Restore You”

My nana (born in Hull in 1926) had a cabinet.  In theory, it was a “China cabinet” – a place in which she could store her “nice” plate-ware and glasses.  And it did contain these things.  But it also contained other things: objects she had collected to form her own cabinet of curiosities – although I see it now as more of a cabinet of aspirations.  Alongside a precious gold-painted tea set, Babycham glasses and floral plates were commemorative coins from Charles and Diana’s wedding, souvenirs from rare holidays to Scarborough, delicate figurines in sweeping gowns and large bonnets, a replica of the rag-and-bone cart my grandad worked on.  I was allowed to open the cabinet on special occasions to hold the precious objects in tentative hands, but mostly it was closed, the objects for show only, visible through the glass doors, the key always kept in the lock - temptation incarnate for a small child. 

When my nana died, her collection was broken up and divided with much argument and tension across the family.  Since then, there have been estrangements and the slow degradation of familial relationships over long and hard decades.  Pieces lost and sold, some hidden and denied. The objects shall never be together again.

My proposal is to make a piece of work, using the cabinet as inspiration and working with the local community to develop it, to explore topics like what might I learn about the local area and the older generations living their now through the objects they curate in their personal collections? How might we see some of the current conversations on the legacy of historical monuments within the personal objects handed down to us from previous generations? Is their materiality a guarantee of the stability of their meaning?  How can we find a liveable space between our love for the object because of their previous histories or their permanence in our lives and the need to reappraise them in the context of our current social climate?

Plans for the proposed artwork, alongside a series of public engagement workshops are available, please contact me here if you are interested in staging this work or something like it.