At the tutorial this afternoon JK announced that he would be showing our films – randomly picking some. Mine was one of the 5 shown this week.
At the feedback question ‘What worked for me’ the following comments were made by the group.
Roz: commitment to a subject and passion for it
Karl: Recognition of viewer ‘bringing themselves to the work’
Ashton: TT ‘immersed us in her work’
Bethany: the work did not become nostalgic
Eliza: Storyteller on social injustice
Catherine: poignant subject – joyful way of telling it with music/singing – powerful
Tom: landscapes built out of wallpaper
Karen: liked introduction – juxtaposition of wallpaper and overpainting
JK: courage to dive into a story not knowing what you’d discover. Belief in the process.
Ben: Music
George: amount of experimentation
Bethany: William Morris wallpaper and reframing it
Ashton: liked the way you showed unsuccessful work too
Thomas: Unpredictability – twists and turns to the film
Madeleine: the comment ‘does anything come without cost?’
Tom: returning motifs gave structure to the whole piece
JK: playful attitude – allowing hands to emerge as a motif.
These are useful comments and I think totally fair and accurate. I didn’t know when I started that the hands would become the overriding symbols of the work. But on reflection it is absolutely right that they should as they were the means of production effectively. Everything else happened from that point.
I’d not come across this term before but I think it is relevant to my own practice.
Saidiya Hartman’s work:Hartman’s “Venus in Two Acts” uses critical fabulation to imagine the lives and relationships of enslaved women, particularly Venus, and to explore the complexities of their experiences.
In my earlier feedback one of the comments was ‘what happens if the 26 characters in Thomas Garland vs Regina 1951 leaves the canvas.’At this point a new conversation can take place. The characters all existed but I don’t know what they looked like only having their testimony to the Court to give any indication of their character.
If all the characters left there would just be an empty polluted field with dead vegetation and trees.
Alan/sue, teresa, ann, Liz, Sue, Barbara, Helen, Nina, Terrye .
This was the group that assembled randomly for the first sketching session. Nina and I introduced ourselves and discussed the medieval rood showing the wooden figure carvings. We then allowed everyone to pick a spot inside or outside the church for sketching. Sue Ed t around taking pictures of us working for publicity purposes.
We discussed what work I was going to bring to the show at CSM in July. JK asked me what I’d really enjoyed making. I think it’s the digital work but depending on the story I’m telling materiality becomes important and different.
My practice covers stone-carving, painting, printing, film, clay/porcelain. This variety and use of multi-media allows me to respond to unearthed stories in what I feel to be the most appreciate way.
The hand installation is a key piece of work because I’ve been imagining making that for some time. However, the granite pieces are heavy and I’d have to get transport to get it to London. The alternative would be to create a large poster of them at the entrance to the labyrinth. JK and I discussed size – I’d like about 1.5m high but the Huhnmeule paper may not be wide enough. I’ll find out about this tomorrow.
Using a 1700 image of Tehidy house near Camborne I’ve merged it with Cornish boy miners and Morris wallpaper. The idea is based on work I saw at Harewood house.
I think a series of these based on the great houses in Cornwall could be interesting.
I visited this country house built by the Lascelles family in pretty much exclusively the slave trade and sugar plantations in the Caribbean.
Turner had been used to paint various aspects of the Harewood house. Interesting to think Turner painted The fighting Temeraire but took money from one of the worse families in the slave trade business. I wonder if Temeraire was painted at a later stage as a sort of repentance?
The exhibition also used some Jane Austen works where her. Characters discuss the slave trade – or rather are confronted by long silences when a timorous heroine asks questions about it.
The juxtaposition of these two artists in this setting was well done.
I like the simplicity of this Turner study Stunning sketchbooks Close up of Turners watercolour trees
Throughout the exhibition some modern artists work was presented.
Emefa Cole
This breaks up the existing old style portraits on the wall.
Paul Hodgson
Using the house as the backdrop and putting g in images which are totally different to the ‘grand setting’ has given me some ideas about the labyrinths.
Cornwall had many grand houses – Scorrier House, Trewidden, Lanhydrock, Tehidy which were built or kept up by the mining industry money. I thought I could create a series of collages and child workers (either from found photographs or my own imagined images) and place them into the house settings.
Here are some examples done based on the slave trade at Harewood.
Interesting commentary quite relevant to my own practice
I’ve always enjoyed collage which I tend to do now digitally using Procreate. in terms of the ideas above I’m considering taking images of Cornish ‘grand’ houses and placing the labyrinth boys within the setting and Morris wallpapers and building up a story of wealth accumulated by the health of children.
Small books
In my Fanny Moyle project I made some zig zag books which I sold. I’d like to make some on my current project and bind them with wallpaper. More of a collage.
Fanny Moyle The Spike booklets
These Turner paintings appear to me quite unlike his watercolours. I was drawn to the arch in the first image.
Unusual angle of two women’s heads – I like the composition as it makes you think about what’s happening
I love watching Who do you think you are’ a BBC television series.
Celebrities are taken on a journey to find great grandparents and relatives long lost to the families’ current memories.
Musing on this it seems extraordinary that stories of our relatives are lost so quickly. Within less than 100 years.
I find it hard to contemplate that my own grandmother was born in 1880! How can that even be!
My thoughts turned to conversations over the years and firsthand accounts given to me of historical events.
When I lived in Breage in the 1970’s I was chatting to an old man, in his 80’s I would say, by the Shute in Breage village. He mentioned that he could remember seeing troops marching down the main road, from Penzance to Falmouth, in red jackets. I’ve done a little research based on mid 1890’s and this is what Duke of Cornwall’s light infantry wore.
It is like a sort of living history one old man’s memory to me. They may have been marching to Falmouth to embark to the Zulu wars or the Boer war.
Another person who was a councillor with me said he’d been a military driver in the army when Belsen concentration camp in Germany was liberated and seen terrible sights. Another firsthand account.
And one of my favourites was told to me in the Seven Stars in Penryn. This encounter was probably in the 1970’s too. The old man said that his father had been caught in the great snow storm – a great snow blizzard in 1891- when working at Wheal Vor tin mine. There were 15’ high drifts and severe gales. In the 1970’s I was farming in this area near Breage.
His dad had survived by cuddling up to his donkey in a hedge.
Helston.—At Helston, every road leading to other towns was blocked up. No newspaper arrived, nor were any mails sent off until Saturday. Telegraph wires and poles, and innumerable trees were blown down, the plantations in the district suffering severely.
At Wheal Vor, Breage, however, a woman, sixty years of age, perished in the snow.
It’s interesting how a chance chat with someone can unearth all these stories. His father had survived because of his donkey. There were reports of snow drifts over 20’ high. I know the lanes around Wheal Vor well and can imagine the blocked roads where the snow piled high on the Cornish hedges.
This is a contemporary a country of a mine worker about 7 miles from Wheal Vor.
A boy named Wallace left his work at the Wheal Basset mine on the afternoon of the storm to walk to his home. He did not reach it at the usual time, nor at all on that day, and great anxiety resulted, search parties scouring the country in all directions. At length, ten days afterwards, his body was found in a snow-drift between thirty and forty yards from his home. Another lad had a very narrow escape. He was missed for some hours, and was found almost unconscious in an outhouse, where he had taken refuge under some straw.
Redruth Camborne
The point I am making is that a story comes from a small comment/a thought/a stimulating memory. The research follows and as shown above by pulling on the most tenuous thread we can unpick the most intriguing stories of people long forgotten.
This is what keeps my work alive to me and keeps my interest strong. There is no shortage of motivation.
Very kind Daniel gave me a green screen last year which I’ve been intending to try out for ages. Since the weather has been sunny over Easter weekend I decided to set it up and test it out.
I am currently using Inshot instead of the normal Procreate so that I can put a voice over into the film.
After researching on YouTube I learnt that you insert the first film the using PIP put the second film over the top. You can then use Cutout and Chroma to delete the green element of the shots.
My husband was used as the guinea pig. He’s tall so I got him to kneel on the floor and wave his arms around. This film was then inserted in to the Botallack mine film I took earlier this year.
Using the green screen
It was difficult to use Robin standing up as the screen only went about 2 meters and if he was waving his arms it wouldn’t work.
Anyway I’m only looking at the principle of it currently never having tried this out before.
Playing with inserting images in Inshot using a green screen
The only problem is that the copper tubing is 2m in height and unless you take the images on a stepladder you end up with the hands outside of the green screen.
First job today is to drill out the plaster hands to allow me to insert some dowelling. The dowelling will then be inserted into the copper pipe. I managed to get some 13mm dowel and the pipe is 15mm.
I used a 12mm drill bit to get a suitable hole in the bottom of the hands without breaking them.
I then used PVA to glue the dowel into the hands. This has been left to dry overnight.
The hands with the sticks in them remind me of those chocolate sticks you get to put into hot milk! Maybe there’s a market for chocolate hands.
I’ve got the copper rods inserted into the granite blocks and they seem to be reasonably stable. I’ll use some double sided tape when I put this together in a museum setting to ensure there’s minimal movement.
Hands are now put into the copper pipe and testing out the material
Once I put all the hands up and check out the materials I think I will probably change the height of two of the copper pipes. They are currently 2m lengths. It needs some height but would work better if the heights are staggered.
My copper pipe is now at the stonemason’s in Penryn- Antron hill quarry. I’ve instructed him to cut holes 16mm Dia in three pieces of granite we’ve picked out. This should hold the copper pipe upright allowing me to place the plaster hands on top. That’s the plan anyway.
It was good to get this task sorted and then do my stone carving on the same site.
Weekend of stone carving. I hadn’t organised anything to carve in advance so looked through some of Ellie’s books – including the master Rodin. How do you cut bodies out of a block of marble?
I decided to take a couple of images of feet and see what I could create from them.
Top right image and another one below it with the bottom of the foot revealed Dancing feet
I thought these might look interesting put together on the Portland stone.
The image is drawn on either pencil then gouged out to reveal the image.
It’s then a matter of cutting and carving the stone and giving depth to the image by cutting down various areas.
Starting to undercut the image but a way to go with this yet.
Wonder when I’ll get to this quality?
See the way the toes are undercut and formed. It’s amazing.
I am thinking of the shoeless boys dancing with death in the mines. Always in my minds eye.
Considering context and when a work of art is made
Although as a person I dislike Picasso (can you dislike someone you’ve never met?) his prints are beautifully executed in simple lines. He captures the flow of movement expertly.
The Picasso museum has a number of his paintings inside,
I like the subtlety of the paint in this image painted onto a wood panel
The above painting is quite unlike his later works where he had evolved his style.
Something that caught my eye was his use of plaster which he then varnished. I thought I might try doing this at some point. Presumably the varnish stops the plaster from getting impregnated with moisture.
Some of his ceramics reminded me of later works by Grayson Perry. I guess that’s where GP got his ideas!
Picasso folded paper and then used the design by pressing metal into the same shapes
The above sculpture is simplistic in its making but effective. Maybe I could try this using some of my old printing plates – they are fairly flexible.
Same image three photos
The simplicity of the form that Picasso achieved in his sculptures links well to his other paintings.
We also visited Picasso’s childhood home although he only lived here put to about the age of nine. They bullfighting had a huge influence on his work through out his life though.
Anita Malfatti 1889-1964 – modernist painter showing every day scenes. challenged orthodox views of art.
Lamar Segal 1889- 1957 – social injustice oppression and immigration.
Tarsila do Amaral 1886-1973 – Vibrant colours Brazilian themes.
Vicente do Rego Monteiro 1899-1970 – indigenous cultures of Brazil. Incorporated motifs and themes in to early work (had no direct contact though)
Candid Portinari 1903 -1962- paintings as vehicle for social change. Social and racial themes in Brazilian society.
Falvio de Carvalho 1899-1973 – Surrealist, cubist and expressionist influences. 1956 stages Experiencias performance art – walking through São Paulo in skirt blouse and fishnet stockings.
Djanjair da Motta e Silva 1914-1979 – hybrid figuration and abstraction. Latterly used vibrant colours to reflect her indigenous Brazilian heritage.
Alfredo Volpi 1896-1988 – Abstraction. Started landscapes and genre scenes but then became abstract using architectural elements into geometric shapes using egg tempera.
Geraldo de Barros 1923-1998 – concretism, used photography – photo montage. Championed geometric abstraction as a mean of transforming society.
Ruben Valentin 1922-1991 – painter and sculptor work bridged modernism and Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions. Geometric abstraction using African symbols- particularly Candomble. Spiritual iconography. vibrant colours and structured arrangements of symbols.
I particularly liked the work by Candido Portinari maybe this is because he used his work as a vehicle for social change and chronicled the lives of ordinary Brazilians.
Anita Malfatti is also inspiring with the composition and the modern feel of her paintings. You can really feel her characters.
The self-portrait of Djanira da Motta e Silva also reflected the world around her. She used a hybrid figuration and abstraction in her work.
Interesting that I was drawn to these three artists who were largely self-taught and responded to the world around them.
As I hadn’t been able to participate in the whole CSM low residency I thought I’d go along to this talk. It seemed to be useful to get the perspective from an ‘insider’.
Debbie started by saying that interpretation wasn’t supposed to be political and this could be challenging when an artist was making political work. She mentioned the book ‘things fall apart’ by author Saidiya Hartman. Indirect communication. Interpretation can often be ‘dry’. It should not tell you everything be allow you to experience the work. Debbie asked whether the interpretation was for the artists sake or the public. So does the artist agree with the curator’s interpretation and does the curator actually know what it is?
Helping people to engage with artwork. Open up the artwork. What the label says and doesn’t say? The interpretation of an exhibition provides the narrative of the exhibition – it can get a lot of criticism. Interpretation has become quite political in terms of public funding if it comes into critique. It’s hard to be neutral. Tate can be scared to do the right thing ie phrases like Empire. Debbie was interested in different way of looking at interpretation. Her father, she said, didn’t tend to answer the question but would go on a long story, take his time and not answer the question. She felt this was bad communication. Maybe she was missing something and maybe this is missing from interpretation in museums. Concise text. What is the point of the interpretation – sound bites. She was taught to be concise use this many words – no more.She thought what are we trying to communicate why is it so dry? She started to think how might that work and became interested in the writings of Hartman. There is sometimes an absence of information say re: enslaved people. So you have to fictionalise and make up narratives from research. The actual records can also be biased. Critical fabulation – the use of storytelling and speculative narration as a means of redressing history’s omissions, particularly those in the lives of enslaved people. With a lot of artwork there is a lot of information missing. Engaging where historical records are missing. Emotion and playfulness and different forms of knowledge may also be absent in the gallery. She liked to use ideas of fiction and critical fabulation as a way of opening up the artwork.
Way of opening up an artwork. Chris Feely’s work ?
How can you experience the artwork ? She uses the analogy of a cereal box with its transparent wrapper and celebrity branding. But can you touch it, feel it experience it, shake it. Interpretation could not tell you how to think or feel about an artwork but allow you to feel and imagine new possibilities of engaging with the art in a plurality of ways. Conversing about an artwork and then reading the caption and being completely different.
There is an assumption that the interpretation is factually correct but most visitors want factual information. They want facts. But a lot is not accurate and can show bias. There is an argument for no interpretation and it is just communicated through visual arts not text. A lot of people need interpretation help to engage with the artwork and engage with it. Some can engage with no text. Most people would feel lost without interpretation.
13:11 TT sometimes people need interpretation of a prop which interpretation provides. They don’t trust themselves to read the work. Most people read most things in a gallery. Perhaps to the detriment of the art itself. They try to put something in the work you can see rather than just facts. Lack of engaging with the actual artwork. Curators may not have actually seen the artwork either – just on screen. First real engagement is during the installation. How is it made? Curators often don’t know.
Quotes are not usually included in interpretation as the artist is the only one who can say. Also has it been factually recorded. It’s only taken from what the artist has said about the work. (Often used over and over). There are many ways to interpret it apart from the artists view. You’re not allowed to offer your own interpretation.
Re imaging art without interpretation but using imagination.
Eliza and I looked at Paul Nash’s Dead Sea ‘Totes Meer’ 1941. It was fun to look deeply into the painting and interpret it ourselves. I noticed things I would not normally have thought about. How the broken planes sit into the calm, natural landscape – scarring it.
Fanny Moyle is 4th in 4th down (full images). This project is to celebrate 50 women of cornwall by making ceramic plates to decorate the newly converted arts centre in Penryn Cornwall. I wanted Fanny to represent all women who had suffered at the hand of the patriarchy even though trying hard to support her family. I hope she’d be pleased to be honoured.
My daughters went to the opening of this project last night 29/3 I’m abroad so couldn’t make it.
Tor has suggested my name! But I’m pleased about Fanny Moyle being there – her story being told to everyone who visits. She represents all women who try their best as single parents to bring up children while being judged as wanting in some way. It still happens today.
Hands stretch high, scraping the jagged ceiling, A white dust clings to the surface, thick with time. The poison of commerce lingers— Wealth for them, but never for me.
Endless hours in cold, twisting paths, Winter blue seas whisper nearby, But noise, fumes, and heat consume it all.
Calloused hands, small and bruised, Shattered by the endless repetition. Refining the tin of arsenic and sulfur, The air thick with heat and vicious stench, Roasting ovens crackle, burning the air.
Fumes pour out of the chimney stack, Turning the fields acid green – the shade of death. Flimsy handkerchiefs, cotton stuffed nostrils, Clay masks pressed tight against the face, For the white dust kills.
I thought I’d create an open book bound in green paper and maybe hand made marbled interior for this poem to sit inside.
I saw an idea in Truro museum the other day.
Open book like structure at Truro museum
The words could be coupled with some of my sketches of the labyrinths and some form of mapping.
Below, from the Report of the Royal Commission on the Blind, the Deaf and Dumb, &c., of the United Kingdom. 1889 Trades employed by institutions for the blind across the UK
Trades for the blind from 1889 on
David Blunkett who was blind and Home Secretary and Secretary for Education under the premiership of Tony Blair said that his given career options at school involved piano tuning.
I asked JK about some of the feedback on Unit 2. One of the provocations was ‘ what happens when all 26 characters in the Court Case of Thomas Garland vs Regina 1851 leave the canvas?’ Well, if the characters did leave the field at that point you would just have an empty field but below the surface the arsenic would still be there poisoning the land. It takes thousands of years for it to dissipate. I have done a painting with just two boys in the field with a tree showing the yellow/green grass and blackened tree.
The old tree stands 2025
JK:There’s something about having ‘itchy feet’ to move onto something new. Get this bit finished and then move on. Also following my discussion with Denzil that painting does not necessarily communicate in 3 seconds an advert: a painting can create an impression of something, creating an atmosphere a feeling of something. This creates the opportunity for a conversation which leads to the opportunity of a story.
The broken fingers on the plaster of Paris all feed into this feeling in a piece of work. Allowing people to wonder about it to lead to the conversation. Allowing space for dialogue. I mentioned Doris Salcedo and the shoes used in installations Atrabiliarios. How evocative these are and how we remember other shoe (in my case from the visit to Auschwitz) and also how I was drawn to Catherine’s work with painted white shoes. We carry our memory of other experiences with us when we see new art work. We talked about Denzil again and the symbolism in his work. He told me about using a sewing machine to make bags with his mother. This made me think about reviewing my own life and childhood and creating work from memory.
The landing at Meadowside with bucket
I talked about earliest memories and that being an outside toilet which you didn’t really like using and at night an enamel white bucket. This was so you didn’t have to go outside in the dark and rain. Also the memory of my parent’s slightly ajar bedroom door which I hated going past in case someone was lurking in there. JK said there were many ways of interpreting feelings and I had skills of stone carving and installation as well as paint. A slightly open door would have different meanings for people, even though I have a clear definition in my own childhood memory. JK: where is the light coming from? What does the door look like – its shape? Colour?
I said that I could only corroborate with my brother on various details. Although the door was white with a black latch on it. JK stated that this was called transactivememory. This is where different people build from individual snippets of memory. This tool is used for community building.
Following the St Keverne History presentation on Fanny Moyle and the Helston Workhouse several of the audience had told me tales from their family. This led to one lady saying her father had been put in a workhouse because he was blind. He ended up being a piano tuner. We also had a blind piano tuner that used to come to our house to tune the piano. (This evokes a strong image in my mind). JK: it’s not the story I am telling them, it draws out their story. (11.26minutes)
I talked about Mr Stephens (Willie ) the next door farmer who was a recluse and lived on the farm with his carthorse Duke and dog Sambo a black and white sheep dog. Sambo got his collar caught on a hedge and hanged himself. I am the only one who has these stories now.
JK: emphasised that art has allowed us to open up those stories and he can imagine what I’m telling him.
Art could be the means to create the dialogue and then use writing or audio to embellish it. Art sets the atmosphere and feeling.
By telling my story -stories from Cornwall- it would allow other viewers to relate their own stories and views of childhood in Cornwall. Their response will be brought to the work.
JK: It’s a rich seam of future work worth exploring. Now you’re finding that space of symbolism the image doesn’t have to do all the work it can do the work of setting the scene, atmosphere and feeling. A wonderful direction to move into.
TT mentioned that in relation to the blind piano tuner this practice went on until perhaps 1968 (check) and if an image was made a note to mention this could sit alongside the work. The same with the word illegitimate. This was in use until the 1970’s??
I enjoy playing with Procreate. It allows me to experiment quickly and try out different techniques. Probably suits my brain – loads of ideas and quick results.
Not sure if this will work but I’ve painted the pipe with miracle grow. I was going to use salt and ammonia – hard to find! The pipe will be inserted into the plaster arms.
The miracle how does not adhere well to the pipe so I may find I have to sandpaper it down first .
It has started to discolour and now I’ve put salt on it as well.
I’m wondering whether to put a peg onto the end of the arms to insert into the pipe. This would allow me to dismantle the arms from the pipe making it easier to transport in future.
This collection of paintings is probably finished although the one on the right with hands needs something else. I’m thinking of putting another hand into it and perhaps a blue bird swooping down. The blue bird has become a bit of an emblem in this series of work . I think of it as representing the poisoning of the environment in our desire for ‘beautiful’ and covered things.
As I write this we see the president of USA leveraging Ukraine to sign over its earth elements.
We are all complicit in this as many every day items – phones, cars use these elements. Putin wants them so does Trump. Ordinary people don’t stand a chance when money is at stake.
Having thought about Denzil and his work I realise that he has been able to mix his storytelling with social justice themes. Placing an open coffin within a nightclub show his effective this technique has been in his work. Clearly it’s not literal but in some sense the dead Winston Rose is in a setting he would have understood and known rather than being in an undertakers.
I feel I should start recording images and experiences from my life. As it would come directly from my memory and imagination and with distance I may be able to juxtapose interesting commentary into it. I may even learn something about myself!
A few years ago I saw Frank Bowling’s work which included an image of his mother’s store in Guyana. I think it was screen printed onto the canvas and then painted over. I was attracted to this because it transport the viewer back to memories of childhood and what’s important to us.
Frank Bowling My Guyana. 1967.Frank Bowling Untitled (Mother’s House), 1966Meadowside – my childhood home Final film of the inside of my childhood home. My parents lived here from 1956 until their deaths in 2007
The apple tree was something my mother was pleased to have in the garden. I think she used them to make apple and blackberry pie when I was young. My brother and I would go with my Dad to pick blackberries off hedges in Coverack Bridges just a walk from our honey.
Bowling seems to have made a series incorporating his mother’s store in the image and then adding a person in the foreground. A crippled person in My Guyana and
Cover Girl. 1966.
Cover Girl is painted on one of a number of pre-prepared canvases Bowling made featuring a silkcreen of ‘Bowling’s variety store’, the shop his mother owned in Guyana. In the foreground, Bowling painted the model Hiroko Matsumoto as she appeared on the front cover of The Observer Magazine, March 1966, wearing a Pierre Cardin dress with a Vidal Sassoon haircut. By using both these images in the same work, Bowling blended his past in Guyana with an emblem of cutting edge London culture at the time of painting.
I’ve noted that Bowling screenprinted a number of canvasses with his mother’s store then overpainted them to make a series.
I’d like to try this with an image of Meadowside and use cyanotype on the canvas to create the image. I know this works as I have replicated some William Morris wallpapers this way.
On Friday I had a meeting with the artist Denzil Forrester. He is an oil painter and known for his paintings done while watching reggae/dub music in the 1980’s. He was happy for me to record the meeting and I have an hour and half of recording.
He agreed that his paintings were about storytelling.
I asked about this use of Symbols /motifs in his work.
He always (nearly always) has speakers in his work. The small speakers for the treble and then the large bass speakers. These look like abstract images .
Denzil Forrester Three Wicked men 1982
The painting Three Wicked Men – depicting a policeman, business man and politician which borrowed its title from the 1981 Reggae George track. “Those three men is a danger to me.” (Part of the lyrics).
His family shared a house at one time with Winston Rose’s family and they were family friends. In 1981 Rose suffered from mental health issues and was taken ill at work. The police were called along with ambulances and social workers and Winston’s mother. The heavy handedness of the police saw Winston taken away in handcuffs and he died in police custody. Denzil made a series of paintings exploring police unaccountability and police violence. This is where several of his works investigate social justice and racism.
Winston Forrester. Funeral of Winston Rose. 1981
Denzil made this painting of his funeral – set in a dub club. There is an image of a sailing boat in the background with Winston Rose being carried off. This is hinting at the afterlife. There is also a picture on the speaker of a Zulu warrior which was to do with the name of the DJ Jay Shaka. There are also spears depicted in the scene with an object that looks like a mud hut.
One of the DJ’s he mentions is Jay Shaka.
The idea of putting the coffin into the scene where the speakers usually sat has made be think more about my own work. I think I should be reflecting on my own life and key moments in it. I like the idea of just placing objects that are out of place into a different setting. Winston Rose would have known this scene well and grown up in this atmosphere. It seems really appropriate that he should be depicted here rather than in a church setting. It reminds me of Bens Shahn’s work The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti 1931-32. Another miscarriage of justice the men being convicted on purely circumstantial evidence. Their execution provoked international riots and protest demonstrations.
The prosecutor built on a general perception that Italians—especially Italian anarchists—were ruthless, murderous criminals bent on overthrowing the United States government. Ben Shahn stated: “ I hate injustice. I guess that’s about the only thing I really do hate.”
Denzil said he always paints with oil and does not like acrylic at all. He used to make bags with his mother’s who was a seamstress. In several of his paintings he is seen at a sewing machine and his mother.
His painting Witchdoctor 1982 is of his cat named the same.
You can just make out the cat in the arms of the man on the far right.
When Denzil moved to Cornwall in 2012 he made a painting of the beach at Porthtowan on the North coast. He said he was unhappy with it . Eventually he painted in the ‘Three wicked men’ so you now have a beach scene with the unlikely scenario of police, Rastafarian and other uniformed persons running along it. In fact he painted this over some of the original images of people sitting on the beach.
He was satisfied with this after he had added the characters. I said I felt it was him bringing his past life to his present one in Cornwall which he felt was probably the case.
He starts all his paintings off by making drawings on A1 paper. Once he has worked up the composition he draws them out onto the canvas. He has the canvasses stretched by a company in St Just.
He was given his main break by Peter Doig, the painter who organised an exhibition for him. Since then he has never looked back. His work is represented in many of the main galleries.
His wife Phillipa (Phillipa Clayden)makes clay objects and also paints. She showed me some of her work. Her parents Pauline and Alan Crayden formed the Islington Arts factory. Denzil used to store some of his paintings there.
Denzil has invited me back in about 4 weeks as he is starting some new work. It will be intriguing to see how he goes about creating his work. Interestingly he sometimes visits the Old Bakery a studio and music club at the end of his road. I know this place because my grandsons both work there.
In the summer exhibition 2026 I decided to put in an oil painting of Thornparks Garden.
The Italian Garden. 2025There’s always a great turn out at the PV at St Ives openI bought this head made from Crank stoneware by Helen Sylvia Jones Stillness
It’s now sitting in the Italian garden on top of the old well. It’s quite an androgynous piece. I saw Helen’s work last year and really enjoyed it – now I own an apiece of it.
I have now submitted in two of the SISOA open exhibitions. Once last year in their Christmas Open running from November to the New year and one this summer.
Oil on board – paintings from The Spike exhibition
I was pleased these two images were included because they are quite different from a lot of the other work being shown which are more likely to be still life, landscape or portrait.
Here are some general images taken of the winter exhibitor 2025.
Terrye Teverson in front of two paintings from The Spike seriesAnn Oakley ceramics using porcelain and paper clay Winged woman also caught my eye.
Our own research shows that nearly every school in west Cornwall is built in an area with elevated arsenic levels.”
She added: “For reference, in assessing the risk from arsenic to sensitive receptors (e.g. humans), a Category 4 Screening Level (C4SL) of 37 mg/kg is used. This is a generic assessment criteria for arsenic in residential soils in England. Much of the South West is above the 37 mg/kg threshold.”
Miss Blackburn said that a 2017 study found that 69 per cent of soils in Cornwall exceed the C4SL for arsenic.
I’ve been to see Sarah Jane at Wheal Martyn Clay works although Siân is still working there Sarah is taking the lead role. She was previously in charge of artefacts at Exeter university campus at Penryn.
There is a new sound machine in the exhibition space so I’ve now done 3 sound pieces to go with my work.
Based on boys working in the arsenic labyrinths in Cornwall
Based on William Morris’s influence and background with arsenic
Linking these thoughts to the worldwide use of child labour in mining today.
I’ve been struggling to come up with a format to allow me to make the work around Cornwall’s arsenic trade relevant in today’s world. I think this link to gold and cobalt mining will be good.
I got 6 interpretation boards
Exhibition panels for wheal martyn
The Art of Terrye Teverson “My work is both a reflection on the past and a call for critical engagement with the structures of power that continue to shape our present.” — Terrye Teverson
Panel 1: The White Labyrinth (Cornwall) In the 18th and 19th centuries, Cornwall’s copper and tin mines fueled a deadly secondary industry: refining pure arsenic. To fuel a booming global market, young “arsenic boys” aged 9 to 15 were sent into the dark, stifling brick flues known as labyrinths. Armed only with scrapers, they cleared toxic white soot from the walls. With nostrils plugged with cotton wool and skin coated in clay to stave off corrosive ulcers, these children paid for industrial greed with their health. Through her tactile use of found, fractured Victorian ceramics, Terrye Teverson literally paints the misery of these forgotten, past lives directly onto the fragile domestic surfaces of the era.
Panel 2: Toxic Luxury (The Morris Print) The lethal harvest from Cornwall’s mines directly supplied the fine art and high fashion of Victorian high society. Refined arsenic created brilliant, coveted pigments like Scheele’s Green. This compound was famously used by design icon William Morris to print his intricate, nature-inspired wallpapers—despite mounting evidence that damp walls released toxic gas into wealthy homes. [1, 2] Teverson directly subverts this history by weaving actual William Morris prints into the very body of her artwork. Through digital collage and layered oil paint, the beautiful, winding vines of Morris’s designs are juxtaposed with haunting archival imagery. The iconic patterns no longer represent innocent luxury; instead, they become a visual cage, trapping the history of the exploited children who died to produce those vibrant hues.
Panel 3: The Living Echo (The World Today) The tragedy of the arsenic boy is not a relic of the past; it has merely migrated across the globe. Today, the insatiable consumer demand for “beautiful” things and modern technology relies on the exact same structures of power and injustice. Children as young as six still toil in the artisanal cobalt mines of the DRC to power smartphones, crawl into illegal “rat-hole” mica mines in India to create shimmering cosmetics, and breathe in lethal mercury vapors in global gold mining. By trapping William Morris prints alongside these modern realities, Teverson’s work forces us to look past the beautiful object and confront the human cost of production that bridges the centuries.
graphics. [1]
I’m also going to put in this graph showing the distribution of arsenic in Cornwall today
bgs-gbase-arsenic-as-soils
Then my artists statement
Artist Statement Terrye Teverson
My work is both a reflection on the past and a call for critical engagement with the structures of power that continue to shape our present.” — Terrye Teverson MA
My artistic practice centres on exploring the political and social issues that I consider important in our contemporary world. I find it stimulating researching and unearthing old stories that have long been forgotten or buried, with a focus on themes of misogyny, patriarchy, and social injustice.
My recent investigation into the arsenic trade in Cornwall brought these pervasive forces into sharp relief, and these historical revelations have fuelled this body of work.
In my practice, I combine a mixed-media approach—layering oil paint with digital collage—with the physicality of sculpting stone carvings. I use old found ceramics to paint the misery of past lives onto beautiful surfaces.
This tactile connection to history through my art allows me to breathe new life into forgotten narratives, while my paintings and collages evoke a sense of drama and theatre.
By blending traditional and contemporary mediums, I aim to create immersive experiences that challenge viewers to confront the desire for ‘beautiful’ objects and contemplate the means of production.
Although there are no longer boys scraping arsenic off the arsenic labyrinth ceilings today, there is still the misery of child workers in mines around the world.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Wheal Martyn Clay Museum for hosting this exhibition and curators Sarah Jane and Siân Powell for advice and support. Kresen Kernow for research material on arsenic in Cornwall National Trust – Botallack Mine arsenic labyrinths UNESCO World Heritage Site Dylan O’Driscoll, University of Manchester for 4/10/2017 report Small scale mining sector in Asia and Africa
Then the Global stats
Global Statistics: Child Labour in the Mining Sector Source Data Summary: International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF, and U.S. Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB).
Macro Global Context • Total Estimate: Over 1 million children work globally in artisanal and small-scale mines (ASM) and quarries. • Worst Forms: The United Nations automatically classifies mining as one of the “Worst Forms of Child Labour” due to extreme physical danger. • The Global Split: While 61% of global child labour is in agriculture, 13% (roughly 18 million children) work in industry, which includes mining, quarrying, and construction. • Hazardous Work Disproportion: Mining represents a tiny fraction of total child labour but an overwhelming percentage of severe injuries. For example, in Tanzania, mining makes up only 0.7% of total child labour cases, but accounts for 18.7% of all hazardous work cases.
Statistics by Mineral
Gold Mining (Most Widespread) • 26 Countries: The U.S. government tracks active child labour in gold mining across 26 different countries spanning Africa, Asia, and South America. • Regional Estimates: • Ghana: Estimated 10,000 children mining gold. • South America (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador): Over 65,000 children working in gold extraction. • Chemical Risks: Up to 100% of children processing gold in informal mines are exposed to toxic mercury vapor, causing permanent central nervous system damage.
Global Supply Chain Contamination Informal artisanal mining (ASM)—where child labour is most prevalent—supplies a massive percentage of the world’s raw commercial materials: • Sapphires: 80% of global supply comes from ASM. • Tantalum (Electronics): 26% of global supply comes from ASM. • Tin: 25% of global supply comes from ASM. • Gold: 20% of global supply comes from ASM. • Diamonds: 20% of global supply comes from ASM.
Cobalt Mining (Highest Concentration) • 40,000 Children: Estimated number of children working in artisanal cobalt mines within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). • The Slog: Children as young as seven carry sacks of ore weighing up to 25kg for 10 to 12 hours a day. • Daily Earnings: Children earn an average of $1 to $2 USD per day, driven by extreme local poverty.
Other Precious Metals & Gems • Diamonds: In unregulated diamond fields in central Africa, children work as sifters, often beginning as early as age five. • Mica (Electronics & Cosmetics): In India’s unregulated mica mining belts, over 5,000 children work gathering and sorting the mineral.
Dangerously high levels of the heavy metal arsenic are posing a health risk to people using the site of a former mine in Devon, which is now a local beauty spot, a new study suggests.
The Devon Great Consols, part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site, was mined extensively in the 19th century for copper and arsenic.
It has since been transformed into a public leisure facility following the construction or redevelopment of various trails, tracks and facilities for walking, cycling and field visits.
However, new research by the University of Plymouth has shown some parts of the site contain arsenic levels more than 400 times that permitted for park-type soil within government guidelines.
It also suggests that adults or children visiting the site repeatedly for periods of several hours could be putting their health at risk, either as a result of ingesting or inhaling the substance or it coming into contact with their skin.
The study was carried out by academics and students from the University’s School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Science, which has conducted several projects over a number of years examining the presence of toxic substances in the public realm.
The Collected Letters of William Morris (Vol. 2): Morris famously wrote: “As to the arsenic scare a greater folly it is hardly possible to imagine: the doctors were bitten as people were bitten by the witch fever”.
This is a key quote to be used in my exhibition on arsenic at Wheal Martyn clay museum.
Morris had shares in Devon great consol tin mine. Did this make him shy away from condemning arsenic as it was a valuable by-product derived from tin and copper mining?
I’ve just come across this article which chimes either my own thoughts exactly.
‘William Morris was a shareholder and sometime director of the mining company Devon Great Consols, in its day the largest producer of arsenic in the world, whose workers were plagued by arsenic-related illnesses. The environmental pollution caused by this mining operation was vast and persists to this day. Devon Great Consols was the major supplier of arsenic for the production of green pigments, used in Morris’s early wallpapers. Arsenic pigments, which were also used extensively in paints and to dye clothes, paper, food and soap were responsible for untold numbers of cases of chronic illness and many deaths.
Professor Meharg relates the paradox of William Morris’s political dogma with his business activities, particularly his involvement with the production and use of arsenic. “There is no doubt that William Morris was a utopian idealist whose life was full of contradictions. He was a progenitor of the green movement and decried the environmental and human degradation caused by industrial activity. But he was also a successful capitalist who supplied the bourgeoisie with expensive interior décor. This paradox is most disturbingly evident in his intimate associations with arsenic.”
I’ve not written much recently but have been doing things.
First I thought it would be useful to think about creative writing. The visit Tate Britain when CSM group met one of their curators made me think about interpretation of exhibitions. Should we have to spell it out to viewers? The curator felt that it would be better for people to have a list of questions with which to examine work. So many people immediately refer to the signage to try and ‘get’ what they’re looking at. I’m thinking of how I interpret my ‘arsenic’ exhibition next autumn.
I met Ben Rothswell who is an author and he agreed to put on a creative writing course which was held at St Ewe church. It was quite inspiring and made me think more closely how I can use creative writing skills alongside my work.
1) I favour using leather bound books with tracing paper inserted with poems or free-flowing text on the right hand side. This could also include images (painted or old photos).
2)Next week I’m going to research the Clay museum archives for items to put on display. This may also turn up more ideas.
I’ve bought a block of limestone for carving and as it’s 9” deep I have to decide whether to cut it into three or make one 6” deep and the other 3” deep. 6” should give me the ability to make a more 3D sculpture. As it’s likely to be wet over winter months I’m going to use the greenhouse for shelter putting my new carving table in place. Tomatoes out / carving in.
Hopefully I won’t crack the glass panes when chopping out chunks of limestone .
I also need to measure the back wall of the clay museum gallery and come up with a plan for a showstopper on this wall 2×3 metres or so. So I use aluminium or a canvas for this?
On Saturday I’m going to a workshop at CAST Helston run by Alison Turnbull. She specialises in using data to make work. Instagram: Alison.turnbull22.
I’ve written these notes mainly to give me something to work with over the next few months .
Drawing on my Cornish heritage, I have undertaken a study of the tin mining industry and its lesser-known connection to the production of arsenic. During the 19th century, arsenic became an increasingly valuable commodity, both as a poison and as a key ingredient in the creation of vivid pigments. These pigments were widely used in textile dyeing and featured prominently in decorative arts — most notably in the wallpapers of designers such as William Morris.
From the mid-1800s onward, these richly coloured designs were highly sought after in fashionable middle- and upper-class homes. Yet this pursuit of beauty was underpinned by a much darker reality. I began to question how much consumers knew about the origins of these colours — particularly the brilliant greens and yellows derived from arsenic compounds.
The production of arsenic was extremely hazardous. Once the furnaces used to extract arsenic from ore had cooled, young boys — many still children — were sent into the flues to scrape the fine, white arsenic dust from the walls and ceilings. A single teaspoon of this substance could be lethal to six people, yet the boys were provided with little more than clay masks and cloth kerchiefs for protection.
Documentation of these working conditions is scarce. The experiences of the poor — especially child labourers — were seldom recorded, and as such, their suffering often remains invisible in the historical record. This absence highlights the broader issue of whose stories are preserved in history and whose are forgotten.
This use of photography and data to represent the story of poverty appeals to me. I am thinking how I might use this to represent the use of arsenic today in some way.
Terrye Teverson MA Fine Art Digital 