ahrc bgp conference: university of northumbria and university of sunderland 11 th may, 2011...
TRANSCRIPT
AHRC BGP Conference: University of Northumbria and University of Sunderland
11th May, 2011
Community in Clay: Ceramics and Community Engagement
The Heart of Jack Crawford: From Museum Text to Printed Ceramic
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award - Community in ClayUniversity of Sunderland and
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens
Towards a Sunderland Ware for the 21st Century: Using ceramics to monumentalise and materialise
identity and narrative in the Digital Age
Christopher McHugh, Year 1, Full-time
Director of Studies: Prof. Kevin Petrie, University of SunderlandCo-supervisors: Dr Andrew Livingstone, University of Sunderland
Shauna Gregg, Keeper of Art, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens
Aim 1To develop innovative methods of artist-led community engagement and collaboration using a museum collection
a) How can current best practice in museum-based community engagement be developed by the artist in order to lead to mutual benefit?
b) How can such practice be better reflected upon and evaluated in order to inform and shape current practice?
c) Are ethnographic and archaeological conceptions of material culture useful when developing strategies for interpreting museum collections and how can these ideas help artists?
Aim 2To develop a new body of artwork in ceramics and mixed media which engages and celebrates the community through reference to the collection
a) How can identity and contemporary narratives be represented in ceramics using form and surface decoration?
b) How can objects in the Sunderland Ware collection be used as starting points for creative expression and the development of associated imagery and themes which reflect and engage the community?
c) How can digital media and social networking services be used by the artist in conjunction with craft-based production techniques to engage the community?
Vive l’ Empereur, God Save the Queen
Transfer printing and pink lustre glaze
Maritime themes, parted lovers, etc. Frog mugs
Jack Crawford, The Hero of Camperdown, 1797, dated 7th April 1890, unveiling of statue
19th Century white earthenware jug decorated with transfer printing, orange lustre and enamelling, Ball’s Pottery, Sunderland
Photo: Tyne and Wear Museums
Jack Crawford, The True British Sailor
19th Century white earthenware jug decorated with transfer printing, orange lustre and enamelling, Ball’s Pottery, Sunderland
Photo: Tyne and Wear Museums
Jack Crawford nailing Admiral Duncan’s colours to the mast on the flagship Venerable
19th Century white earthenware mug decorated with transfer printingBall’s Pottery, Sunderland
Photo: Tyne and Wear Museums
Transfer print of medal presented to Jack Crawford by public subscription, later sold to the Earl of Camperdown, who donated it to SMWG
19th Century white earthenware mug decorated with transfer printingBall’s Pottery, Sunderland
Photo: Tyne and Wear Museums
Museum Accessions Register
15th Sept. 1882‘The Heart of Jack Crawford’, donated by Coun. H. Rudlandbrother of ‘Signor D-u-r-land’ (?), freak show owner
First reference to Jack Crawford pottery being donated to the Museum, 24th August, 1897 (Centenary of Battle of
Camperdown, 1797)
‘24.8.97 - Pot - painted Jack Crawford nailing Admiral Duncan’s flag to the mast…’
Left: cholera death of “veteran tar John Crawford” reported in Sunderland Herald, 12th Nov. 1831
Right: Editor’s comment from Monthly Chronicle, April, 1887, “a glass jar labelled as containing the heart of the hero of Camperdown.” Also reference to pub sign which was in the Museum until recently.
Left: Programme of Statue opening, including a variety of stalls selling cider and a Jack Crawford panorama, 7th April, 1890
Right: Drawing of proposed statue, Monthly Chronicle, Sept. 1888, same design as mug
Renewed interest in Jack Crawford shown by numerous articles in Sunderland Echo in 1880s
Jack Crawford’s Heart
Slipcast porcelain with oxide stain and transfer printing
Approx. 15 x 10 x 5 cm
Prototype medal made for British Art Medal Society Medal Competition
Jack Crawford’s Heart(reverse)
Slipcast porcelain with oxide stain and transfer printing
Approx. 15 x 10 x 5 cm
Prototype medal made for British Art Medal Society Medal Competition
Using objects to engage:Foyle Street Writers -
Focus Group and Verse Project
Sunderland plaque - ‘scripture tiles’/ ‘poor man’s pictures’
Re-visiting Museum Collections
• Initiative of Collections Trust & Museums Libraries and Archives
• ‘Toolkit’ for capturing alternative interpretations of objects to add to archive
• feedback• collectionslink.org.uk
• Looking at the object1. Why have you picked this item?2. What is most important or
interesting about it?3. What topics or subjects do you think
it relates to? 4. Have you used something like it?5. Do objects/ records like this relate to
your own experience, or a tradition you know about?
6. What can we find out from it? 7. What do you think about it? 8. Do you like it?9. What do you want to know about it?
Better to pay and have little leftThan to keep much and be always in debt
While thou drink’st thy neighbour’s healthDrink not thine own away
Love and Be Happy
This world is a good place to live in
May carpenters flourish and our trade increaseAnd victory bring lasting peace
Seize the moments as they fly, Know to live and learn to die
Education has overtakenVocation.
Sunder landJoined at last by bridges that span
Moulding and meltingLives come togetherSearching, taking, transferringthe formCreating an image, the future is born.
Pavements worn smooth and shiny by the boots of the shipworkers marching down to work. Ringing now with the echoes of thespirits that rise withthe tide. By Val Wilkinson
The word, Wedding.The WE: comes before the, I.
No ships. No pits. The Glass: Works!
The Winter GardensWhere you, press a Screen toRelive the past.
Ships no more.Cars galore.
By Kath Conlan
Loving Cup
May this cuplike our wedding vowsnever be broken
Tankard
Our heritage was foundedby the banks of the Wearshipbuilding, coalminingAnd good old fashioned beer
By M Llewellyn
3 Rifles Medal Project
• Focus group to develop a campaign medal commemorating tour in Afghanistan
• Reminiscence exercise• Precedent in
Sunderland Pottery – What would it look like now?
Sunderland ware mug at DLI Museum commemorating Thomas Brown 68th Reg., 1842
Gallery of Wonder at Great North Museum: Hancock 14th May (PM) – 10th June
Exhibition brochure: ‘The Heart of Jack Crawford: A Shrine to Unsung Heroes’