My moth boxes are gone – I took them down to St Mary in the Castle Crypt in Hastings yesterday and installed them alongside Cathryn Kemp’s residency work.
It was the first time I had seen her installation other than in her beautiful photographs. [ see her blog on Projects Unedited to find out more.]
Cathryn has installed white petticoats in this damp, silent place in memory of the 27 young girls who succumbed to TB in the seaside sanatorium and are buried there. Her lighting is very soft and the sound installation is whispered and unintelligible. It engendered in me a feeling of gentle sadness, femininity and of lives that were robbed of the girlish gaiety that the petticoats speak of.
I had wondered if placing the boxes within somone’s completed work would be problematic, but they found an instant niche as sometimes things do. Concerned about the damp I decided to put them on top of a grey wooden apple crate- dusty, and spider webbed. I hoped it would melt into the colour of the crypt walls and it worked well. It also raised the drawings to a height where they are more easily viewed.
I am pleased. They are something to be found. If studied closely the X-Ray/crucifixion images and the fact that the moths are dead add an unexpected darker touch to the installation.
The crypt which is entered through the crypt cafe on the sea front has been an innovative art space but under threat for a while. Thankfully the crypt has been reprieved for a year.
I have been offered a residency in this very special place next summer……I am already percolating the possibilities in the brain.
Lots to think about.
