Transformers - Ipswich Museum

Transformers - National Project for Museums across UK

Purpose: Unlock the museum objects through the story of a Victorian character in a way that will inspire visitors and help support the museum to make a great social impact.

 

Rachael McFarlane, Transformers Project Manager, Ipswich Museum

UCS - History and Fine Art

Suffolk One

Colchester Institute

A Museum of a Victorian Museum   

 

 

 

 

 

The rationale behind the organisation of the Geology section has been lost. 

Some of the rocks and fossils have wonderful markings but many look dry and dull.  I wanted to remind spectators of their value as part of the living history of planet.

 

The vitrines are dark mahogany and because the lighting is dim, the glass  reflects a warm, dim, yellow light (like candle light) which reduces the energy brought into the space by visitors.   

 

My exhibition was displayed in the Geology Section amongst the vitrines. 

The environment felt like theatre.  Everything was organised and displayed in rows in-keeping with the rationale behind the museum - order, categorisation, time passing slowly.  

I felt the microscope alluded to science and to a sense of wonder as created by a kaleidoscope - light, change, apparent control then awareness of loss of control over fleeting, interconnected images.  It provided a metaphor too for looking closely beyond what is obvious - to be alert to new possibilities and to look further than what is presented to as fact, knowledge, real or true.

 

 

 

 

Conservation Room - photograph morphed using Photoshop - looking at hidden interiors in new ways.

  

 



Complex human environments - numerous ancient and modern objects from across the globe undergoing categorisation and conservation. 

 



 

3 views of the Conservation Room

 

A map of a Complex Human Environment

 

I took a line for a walk and created multiple images to intensify the sense of complexity which is felt profoundly in the Conservation Room.

 

 

 

 

 

I created 30 micro paintings which can only be viewed under a microscope.  I tried projecting the images but the intricacies or the lines created by means of an etching needle was lost.   Spectators enjoyed looking into the microscope; in a sense it enhances the sense of isolation in looking (it creates a gallery space for one).  Each painting is on a slide which if moved slightly produces a whole new image.  Once a particular image is moved it is very difficult to find it again so the images mimic time passing, change and alteration.

 

 From 4"x 6" inch to A0

 

 

 

This  drawing based on the structure of Icelandic Spa viewed under the microscope.  The Spa appears crystal clear to the naked under but under the microscope black lines appears showing how the Spa is actually fractured by the pressure in the earth which it carries in its memory. 

 

 

Screen prints.  Ink on acetate, ink removed using etching needle and bamboo mounted on paper. A1

These screen prints are an extension of my drawings.  The application of ink using a roller and screen produces forms I cannot achieve by any other means.  I then use the forms which appear as starting points for relationships with marks and lines and the naturally occurring flacking of ink off the acetate surface which imitates the fragility of the surface of rock.