The title is a quote from Milton, a final line which sums up the long and galloping title page of this 1808 book in the archives of Helston Museum: The accounts of sea voyages and exploration in this book still make vivid reading now – and must have been literally fabulous to contemporary readers. One […]Read Post ›
I recently came across the observation that we each have two deaths : the first at the moment when our heart stops beating – and the second, more chilling end when the final person who knows our name also dies. There seemed to me to be a link between this idea and the arbitrary […]Read Post ›
There is a sinister allure to the following document, which I did try to resist. Morbid fascination makes it a popular exhibit in Helston Museum, but I struggled to see how this extraordinarily dark list could possibly be translated into a painting. There is violence, drama and tragedy in every line : murders of parents, babies, […]Read Post ›
Towards the back of Helston Museum, in a distant corner of the section dedicated to maritime history, there is this small, framed text : a religious poem with a list of the names of 19 victims drowned in an accident The drowned are all young men, 7 of them boys under 15. Why would so many […]Read Post ›
Feeling slightly leech-like, over the last year I have made repeated visits to Helston Museum, absorbing material and slithering back to the studio to assess, contemplate and digest. Two phrases kept coming to mind. The first – influenced by the overwhelming volume of material held in the archives relating to the finances of long past […]Read Post ›
Paintings based on the archives and collections of Helston Museum. Hunting through archives for source material for paintings has represented a new approach to my work. I’ve found the process simultaneously engrossing and panic-inducing : really not knowing what I’m looking for until I find it. The archives of Helston Museum hold a surreal mix […]Read Post ›
death and circuses 