At each of the venues where Jeanie Finlay installed Home-Maker on its national tour, she oversaw the production of a new site specific piece to run simultaneously.
For the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, Jeanie specifically requested the assistance of the Friends of the Hatton Gallery to create a new installation entitled Belonging.
BELONGING
All of the Friends were asked if they would be willing to loan an object from their home, alongside an accompanying 30 word text which would explain why the object was of significance to them. The resulting display includes an eclectic range of items, from an ice pick, to an aloe plant, to an unfinished painting, all of which, for whatever reason, evoke intimate memories and sentiments from their owners.
HOME FROM HOME
Home from Home is a trajectory from Home-Maker. When Home-Maker came to Aberdeen Art Gallery an extension of the artwork was realised by the artist Heather Delday working with an elderly group living in Aberdeen and the curators of the gallery.
The curators assembled twelve glass cabinets containing domestic items from the Gallery’s archive collection. The cases were wallpapered and objects were grouped together to create room displays ie, Living room, kitchen, bathroom etc.
Heaher Delday worked with the white space ceramics group initiating discussions around the objects shown and how they compared to their experience of home. These transcribed conversations were edited by Jeanie Finlay and extracts from the text were overlaid onto the cases as text. The cases were shown alongside Home-Maker at Aberdeen Art Gallery.
Artistically and technologically the project represents a new approach to interpreting and accessing cultural heritage.
This art-research collaboration with Aberdeen Art Gallery has broadened to include the Ambisense research team (also part of Robert Gordon University) and potentially the Aberdeen City Council and others.
Art-research collaboration. Mixed Media. 2006
Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen.
Ambisense research team, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen City Council
Arts Council England
