A Collection of Toys and a Collection of Plates 1994/95
‘A Collection of Frames’ photograms of Toys, this work consists of nearly 50 freestanding frames, relics from the forties/fifties era. They vary in size, design and the materials they are made from. They are coloured, some plastic, some wood, some metal, some green, some pink, some plain some fancy, one round some tall some long. They reference the domestic, they would have been found on a mantelpiece or on a sideboard.
In the frames reappropriated for this work, to contain black and white photograms (each in negative and positive)of Charlie’s toys (then five) many are animals, mammals and reptiles: lions, sheep, cows, snakes, seals, chickens polar bears, dinosaurs, giraffes etc. And then there are the figures: Bike Mouse, Captain Scarlet, Cat Woman, aliens, Little Bo peep, Trolls etc.
These frames are placed on top of the large surface, in the centre of the gallery space, a large plinth mimicking the perspective of the room, the frames make up a sea of images for the viewer walking around the work to see. “The plinth in chest height, we peer over the top like children looking at mementos on a parent’s or grandparent’s dressing table… They are arranged almost haphazardly, yet remind us of players in an imaginary subuteo game or toy soldier battle.” Jane Grant
‘A Collection of Plates’ this series of 17 plates are made out of fibreglass; images were printed to the same size as an actual plate, then torn to the shape of the centre. The plate was then used to form a fibreglass plate with the photograph embedded inside. The process of making is evident in the object, the fibres resulting in a frilly edge, one that is delicate and dangerous to touch.
I selected family plates, plates used for both special occasions and the everyday: meat plates, cake plates, decorative plates, fishplates, round plates oval plates some small some large.
These photographs show the plates installed in the kitchens of St Nicholas Priory (dating back to 1087) the exhibition was linked to Umbra Penumbra at Spacex Gallery, Exeter 1994.
