A Splendid Kindred Soul

Glass-mounted Neolithic linen sample from collection of the Ashmolean museum, Oxford.

This participatory project was developed for the University Engagement Programme (UEP) at the Ashmolean museum, Oxford in May - June 2015. It took the form of six workshops, improvised spoken-word accounts of the material relationships between artefacts, and a moving-image artwork installed at the museum. Workshop participants were drawn from undergraduate programmes in the English and Fine Art departments at the University of Oxford.

An online version of the print publication (available below) presents written accounts and transcriptions of 'object-autobiographies' improvised during the final workshop. The images (included here) show the various artefacts from the museum's collection which formed the basis of these accounts.

Two videos were produced: the first was installed in the museum's textile gallery to coincide with a UEP symposium in June 2015, and presents footage of artefacts being handled, along with spoken-word improvised, spoken-word 'object autobiographies'; the other was released online and describes the workshop proceedings, again accompanied by audio-recordings of spoken improvisations. Online versions of these videos are included here.

DETAILS

4 participatory workshops with UEP at The Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archæology, May-June 2015.

Print publication – Edition of 100

HD video with audio – 14 mins. Installed at the Ashmolean museum's Textile gallery, June 6th- 21st 2015.

PRINT PUBLICATION

Scroll to read the online version of the publication, or download an online version here.

SIMON POPE et al - A SPLENDID KINDRED SOUL BOOK A4 online version.pdf

DESCRIPTION

This project is a collaboration between artist Simon Pope and students from the Ruskin School of Art, the Faculty of English, the Ashmolean University Engagement Programme at the University of Oxford, and artefacts from the museum’s collection.

A series of workshops, held at the museum during Trinity Term 2015, explored the vibrant materiality of object-human relations, engaging theories which promote the ‘motility’ and vibrancy of all things in relation to each other.

The title of the work derives from Karl Marx’s ‘Capital Vol.1’ in which a bolt of linen cloth recognizes in a finished garment a shared understanding of commodity value. In this project, a number of museum artefacts, including a neolithic linen scrap from the Alpine lakes, reflect on other forms of value derived from the material relationships between people and things

Outcomes from the project include the video exhibited here, and a limited-edition print publication of the spoken-word improvisations developed during the workshops.

VIDEOS

Documentation of workshops

Video installed in the Ashmolean textile gallery, June 2015

ARTEFACTS FROM THE MUSEUM'S COLLECTION

A selection of objects from the Ashmolean's collection—mostly from the neolithic period—related to the production of linen.

This project was funded by the Ashmolean University Engagement Programme, with the generous support of the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

Special thanks to Senta German, Jim Harris and Alison Roberts for their hard work and kind support in realizing this project.

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