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Last Saturday, 20th June 2015, I installed my work “Illuminated by Shadows” in the Central Library in St Helens.
The panel explains my motivation and ideas for the work.
The themes come from my research for a larger commission that I am currently working on, funded by Heart of Glass, St Helens. I always knew that St Helens was important to the industrial development of the UK but I didn’t realise how important. I would like others to recognise the innovation, creativity, community and sheer hard work that is evident in the town’s history. I feel that many people have been ground down and lost their pride in the town and the belief in their ability to facilitate change.
The installation features two illuminated picture boxes with back projections. One box depicts miners leaving Sutton Manor Colliery, the painted shapes and illuminated side-panels represent coal. The image of the colliery is projected from the back of the box onto the wall behind.
The other box depicts glass workers in their woollen safety suits outside Pilkington Glass Works. The painted shapes and illuminated side-panels represent cullet (waste glass chippings). The image of the glassworks is also projected from the back of the box onto the wall behind.
The other installation piece is a revolving shadow lantern. The four sides depict well-known St Helens buildings grouped by theme – town centre, leisure, glass and coal.
The ghosts of the past drift across these scenes, in the form of silhouettes. The silhouettes are inspired by a film I discovered on the British Film Institute’s website of workers leaving the St Helens Pilkington glass factory in 1900. The film clearly shows many children amongst the workers, the great-grandparents of St Helens’s present-day population.
The installation of my artwork was designed to coincide with the Cultural Hubs pARTSticipate event involving many local arts groups and performers. Senior Arts in Libraries Officer, Owen Hutchings, kindly introduced my work to the attendees.
While I was setting up the work an ex-miner recognised his old place of work in my colliery picture box. He told me some interesting stories about the dangerous and often scary working conditions down the mines.
Thanks to Owen Hutchings and Jess Bowstead from St Helens Libraries for giving me the opportunity to make this, to Stephen Wainwright for allowing me to use information and images from his brilliant website http://www.suttonbeauty.org.uk/ to Liverpool John Moores University staff Lol Baker (FabLab Liverpool) for laser-cutting the panels and Martin Gee for helping with construction of the plinths/boxes and most of all to AJ Malone for helping with construction, technicalities and installation.
Jane Barwood Art 