Momentous artifacts
Fig 1. Halsall 2024, Moments as artifacts
Whilst researching my previous project, Well Done Penny, I spent time exploring mythological objects at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. The Deputy Curator, very kindly supplied me with information on key artifacts relevant to my practice. I was particularly interested in spells and charms which took the form of ink or pigment on parchment and paper.
Fig 2. Unknown. 1893. Written spell found at the home of Jonathan Frankland in a desk (Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford)
Well Done Penny, explores the nature of documentation, it’s power (to define and represent us), in comparison to it’s materiality (pigment on paper), the research drew me towards the talismanic nature of handwriting, and paper spells, and the comparable totemic nature of photography. The images the museum supplied, depicted pieces of paper with strange markings, often in wooden frames, plain grey and black backgrounds.
What if we could define a moment, or a place as a museum artifact? If we could attempt to archive a place or moment in the same manner as these revered magical objects. This experimental project completed during my assessment period, looks at the moment as an artifact. Exploring the superficial, 2 dimensional nature of a simple photograph, I wanted to play with the idea of returning the 2 dimensional images back into a 3 dimensional space.
The resulting images feel reminiscent of theatre sets, the sense of scale has been challenged. The scenes are all favourite personal locations. It explores what could be beyond a photograph’s frame. What lies beyond it’s borders. But it also looks at containment. I wanted to explore how I felt revisiting these moments and locations as a single image or a 3 dimensional representation.
Fig 3. Tress 1989. Swimming Lesson, New York
The concept was also inspired by Arthur Tress, Fishtank Sonatas. These staged, surreal still life images, feature objects Tress collected at thrift stores, placed inside a fishtank and photographed in carefully selected location. The resulting confined scene within a scene is reminscent of the idea of the confined space of a photograph, how it restricts our context and understanding of what is around or beyond it’s borders. His arrangement of associated toys and objects embody a parallel, parody of the associated locations.
FIGURES
Fig 1. HALSALL, Penny. 2025. Moments as Artifacts
Fig 2. Unknown. 1893. Written spell found at the home of Jonathan Frankland in a desk. Pitt Rivers Museum [online]. Available at: https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ . [accessed at 19th January 2025]
Fig 3. TRESS, Arthur. 1989. Swimming Lesson. Bulger Gallery [online]. Available at: https://www.bulgergallery.com/artists/152-arthur-tress/series/fish-tank-sonata/ [accessed at 19 January 2025]