Production Still: Mrs. M. L. Harris and Nick Durnan in conversation.
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- Audio work in which a stone-carver and the artist's grandmother are placed in dialogue to re-imagine a sculpture which once adorned the West Front of Exeter Cathedral. 2009
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Photo: R.Pope, 2009 |
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- "Some time ago, I was taken to Exeter Cathedral to see a gargoyle that was carved by my great-grandfather. My mother had been taken to see it by her mother too. When I returned
to show the carving to my own daughter I realized that the stone had
weathered to such an extent that it was now impossible to tell what had
been depicted. Through conversation with my family members, I began to
build a picture in my mind of what the carving had looked like. Between
my mother and grandmother, the carving had been imagined as a number of
things. It was an amalgam of their recollections. Rather than a
verifiable, accurate image, I realized that what was being described
was as much imagined as it had been real. In dialogue, in it's
description, its form also changed. Somewhere between us lay the image
of the stone figure. Interestingly, this complex interplay of memory
and imagination was at heart of my great-grandfather's practice as a
stonemason, given artistic licence to carve anything he wished on this
and other Cathedrals.
- This new work sees my Grandmother, her sight faltering, entering
into dialogue with a stonemason, to reconstruct the image of the
gargoyle. An audio-recording of the this conversation and process of
interpretation, imagining and reconstruction is is played-back in the
gallery."
- Link to the Spacex Gallery website:
- Video recording of Artist's Talk and Tour of Exeter Cathedral here:
Installation View, 2009
 Artist's Talk, 2009 (Photo: R.Pope)
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Video courtesy of Will Pollard, 2009
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- Press
- BBC Online (01/05/09)
- The Guardian Newspaper (online version here (23/05/09)
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