Studio practice - Castle project

 Nottingham castle project   

We were recently given the opportunity to work with the castle again. As third years this project was optional, I chose to take part, because why not? Its a great opportunity. We were instructed to respond to any part of the castle, whether that be the exhibits, the building or the grounds, anything. The work I've created kind of follows two different streams of thought, the first being a direct response to the castle toilets, the second relates the suffrage movement in Nottingham.

The first response to the toilets is directly linked to the shit stories project, My tutor had been suggesting for a while that I do something with mirrors and writing in this project, whether that screen print or lipstick. The castle bathrooms had an abundance of blank simple mirrors so I thought it fitting to utilise them and try it out. I had this idea planned out to write some of the shit stories on the mirrors in red lipstick, the final piece would come through the documentation, either photographs or a video piece, It ended up being both. Myself and yang both went to the castle together, and took a day out of the studio to help each other with filming and photographs. The "repeat" video was filmed in the castle bathrooms and is documentation of this mirror writing but also more experimental in editing. I also took my photographs during this process, I printed some A2 and framed them, these were used for my shit stories project but due to location can be used for both. 

I had been pretty sure that I would keep my work for the castle as an extension of the shit stories project as a way of keeping it easy, however the night before filming a whole different idea came to me. I had come across an old article about the Nottingham suffragette movement, within it a quote from a women directly mentioning the castle. The women, Louisa Stanley, was the wife of the MP for Nottingham at the time, She said "There is not so rough and brutal a lot as the Nottingham mob in all England, Well can we remember the past - the burning of the castle- the attack upon private house...". I guess the idea itself was the same, this quote written on the mirror in lipstick, the idea behind it slightly different. I think the choice of using Red lipstick is interesting with the themes of the quote, red lipstick often being associated with power or confidence, the exact things the women were fighting for. I hadn't seen anything relating to the suffragette movement in the castle, but the article directly mentions the castle so I thought it applicable, and with everything that's happening in America around female health and reproductive rights I thought it highly relevant to re visit these themes today as even in  this modern world, issues around rights still persist. I have emailed Deborah Dean to ask if she knows of any works in the castle or archive directly liking to suffrage or women's rights. I do think that even if there aren't any works in the castle relating to this, its still highly applicable, the quote directly mentions and links the castle to these theme, and I mean I Would class the whole thing as a pretty shit story anyway so it links that way too.  Again I photographed the quote on the mirror and printed and framed it at A2. 

All of these pieces are able to be physically put in the castle, but I also have the digital copies that could be used for the Vr exhibition. I like doing site specific work, creating work in a different environment like the toilets is refreshing, and I believe the results look effective. I like the idea of this piece being an installed installation in the castle for the exhibition, the shit stories written on the mirrors, perhaps with a sound piece of them being recited playing. This piece would be relatively simple as lip stick isn't permanent and shouldn't cause any damage, but i would have to take this idea to both Julian and Deborah to see there thoughts on this idea and if it could be a possibility.