Lost But Not Forgotten is a commemorative wreath made from donated human hair using Victorian tec... more Lost But Not Forgotten is a commemorative wreath made from donated human hair using Victorian techniques for creating mourning artefacts. It memorialises the lives of people whose skulls were taken from the colonies for museums during the late nineteenth century-a historical moment described by Stephen Jay Gould as 'the heyday of craniology' 1 , which remains a significant factor in claims made by Indigenous peoples for return of ancestral remains from museum collections in the UK today. Lost But Not Forgotten was made as the focal point in the culminating exhibition of a practice-based doctoral research project conducted in the School of Art and Design History at Kingston University 2. This paper, which is presented in three parts, describes: the background, and rationale for the project; research and development of the Lost But Not Forgotten wreath as an artefact designed to facilitate active critical conversation concerning contested human remains in museums; and the role played by the Crypt Gallery St. Pancras in the process of presenting this artefact and associated historical evidence to the public.
When the Rothschild Foundation and National Trust commissioned the artist Jane Wildgoose to prese... more When the Rothschild Foundation and National Trust commissioned the artist Jane Wildgoose to present an exhibition at Waddesdon Manor, the country mansion built for Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898) containing his magnificent collection of eighteenth-century French decorative arts and European paintings, she focused not on the grandeur of the house or the luxury of its contents, but on a simple lock of hair and a tiny photograph of Ferdinand’s wife, Evelina (1839–1866). This essay gives an account of how these humble objects held the key to a deeply personal story relating to Ferdinand and Evelina. Focusing on the materiality of human hair, and the complex codes for mourning in the late Victorian period, Wildgoose unravels some of the meanings associated with nineteenth-century mourning jewelry, including examples selected from the Rothschild collections and the Royal Collection to accompany Evelina’s hair and photograph in her exhibition Beyond All Price. It also discusses her res...
This article discusses my practice as an artist and researcher examining the situation and signif... more This article discusses my practice as an artist and researcher examining the situation and significance of graves. First, in a site-specific installation at West Norwood Cemetery in South London, talking with visitors about whether it matters where human remains are deposited; secondly, in exhibitions at the Crypt Gallery St. Pancras and Lumen Crypt Gallery in Bethnal Green, presenting evidence of the historical circumstances in which human remains were appropriated from graves in the colonies, for the purposes of research into racial 'science' in museums during the late nineteenth century.
Focusing on Hogarth's last graphic work, The Bathos, this essay examines the ways in which the va... more Focusing on Hogarth's last graphic work, The Bathos, this essay examines the ways in which the vanitas themes it represents are bound up with events that occurred towards the end of the artist's life. Drawing on life writing (includ-ing elements of Hogarth's autobiographical notes) that accompanied the cataloguing of his works in the years following his death, it discusses a number of controversies that drew scathing criticism of his work, his character, his politics, his ideas about English art and his standing as an artist, during his final years. Focusing on textual and visual images employed by Hogarth's detractors to belittle him, it explores how these metaphors may be connected with the ico-nography he employed in The Bathos, and the extent to which the work may be 'read' as a representation of the artist himself, and his view of his reputation at the end of his career. Contrasting the pessimistic image Hogarth presents in his final work with the afterlife writing of his achievements by his contemporaries , it concludes with reflection on the role that his grave continues to play in celebrating his life and his status as one of the most talented and innovative artists of the eighteenth century.
One thing in life we can be certain of: death. But how we talk about death—its inevitability, its... more One thing in life we can be certain of: death. But how we talk about death—its inevitability, its causes and its course, its effects, or its places—is susceptible to changing cultural conditions. Reviewing a history of death that begins in prehistory, the distinguished historian of death Thomas Laqueur doubts it is possible to comprehend (in both senses) the topic: ‘Our awareness of death and the dead stands at the edge of culture. As such they may not have a history in the usual sense but only more and more iterations, endless and infinitely varied, that we shape into n engagement with the past and the present’.
ABSTRACT Strong Room, by the artist and researcher Jane Wildgoose and the artist Roelof Bakker, w... more ABSTRACT Strong Room, by the artist and researcher Jane Wildgoose and the artist Roelof Bakker, was published in 2014 by Negative Press London, a small press established by Bakker with the aim of initiating collaborations in print between artists and writers. Strong Room mixes photographs showing traces of preserved past human activity with writing, which highlights the loss of tangible experience and lack of physical presence in the digital world. Reflecting on the aesthetics of abandoned workspaces and the historical and academic importance of paper-based archives, Bakker and Wildgoose explore the potential for perceptions of materiality to prompt the imagination and evoke memories. In this article, the artists reflect on a range of subjective responses to archives and archival materials and discuss the background to their collaborative approach to developing the book: presenting a selection of Bakker's photographs together with extracts from the accompanying essays in Strong Room.
This essay discusses some of the ways in which human hair and bones may be perceived as materials... more This essay discusses some of the ways in which human hair and bones may be perceived as materials that “speak” to us. It examines the craft skills and beliefs associated with incorporating human hair into mourning artifacts during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries in northern Europe and North America. In addition, it compares these ways of making and knowing how to listen to the dead with the “deaf ear,” which was turned by scientific collectors to the skulls they amassed in great numbers in museums during the Victorian colonial period. It concludes with an account of how the author has taken her practice as a contemporary artist in new directions in recent years—learning the skills and applying the knowledge of nineteenth-century amateur hairworkers to make a new commemorative hair wreath, which encourages reflection on a historical legacy that has led to claims for the repatriation of ancestral bones from museum collections.
Lost But Not Forgotten is a commemorative wreath made from donated human hair using Victorian tec... more Lost But Not Forgotten is a commemorative wreath made from donated human hair using Victorian techniques for creating mourning artefacts. It memorialises the lives of people whose skulls were taken from the colonies for museums during the late nineteenth century-a historical moment described by Stephen Jay Gould as 'the heyday of craniology' 1 , which remains a significant factor in claims made by Indigenous peoples for return of ancestral remains from museum collections in the UK today. Lost But Not Forgotten was made as the focal point in the culminating exhibition of a practice-based doctoral research project conducted in the School of Art and Design History at Kingston University 2. This paper, which is presented in three parts, describes: the background, and rationale for the project; research and development of the Lost But Not Forgotten wreath as an artefact designed to facilitate active critical conversation concerning contested human remains in museums; and the role played by the Crypt Gallery St. Pancras in the process of presenting this artefact and associated historical evidence to the public.
When the Rothschild Foundation and National Trust commissioned the artist Jane Wildgoose to prese... more When the Rothschild Foundation and National Trust commissioned the artist Jane Wildgoose to present an exhibition at Waddesdon Manor, the country mansion built for Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898) containing his magnificent collection of eighteenth-century French decorative arts and European paintings, she focused not on the grandeur of the house or the luxury of its contents, but on a simple lock of hair and a tiny photograph of Ferdinand’s wife, Evelina (1839–1866). This essay gives an account of how these humble objects held the key to a deeply personal story relating to Ferdinand and Evelina. Focusing on the materiality of human hair, and the complex codes for mourning in the late Victorian period, Wildgoose unravels some of the meanings associated with nineteenth-century mourning jewelry, including examples selected from the Rothschild collections and the Royal Collection to accompany Evelina’s hair and photograph in her exhibition Beyond All Price. It also discusses her res...
This article discusses my practice as an artist and researcher examining the situation and signif... more This article discusses my practice as an artist and researcher examining the situation and significance of graves. First, in a site-specific installation at West Norwood Cemetery in South London, talking with visitors about whether it matters where human remains are deposited; secondly, in exhibitions at the Crypt Gallery St. Pancras and Lumen Crypt Gallery in Bethnal Green, presenting evidence of the historical circumstances in which human remains were appropriated from graves in the colonies, for the purposes of research into racial 'science' in museums during the late nineteenth century.
Focusing on Hogarth's last graphic work, The Bathos, this essay examines the ways in which the va... more Focusing on Hogarth's last graphic work, The Bathos, this essay examines the ways in which the vanitas themes it represents are bound up with events that occurred towards the end of the artist's life. Drawing on life writing (includ-ing elements of Hogarth's autobiographical notes) that accompanied the cataloguing of his works in the years following his death, it discusses a number of controversies that drew scathing criticism of his work, his character, his politics, his ideas about English art and his standing as an artist, during his final years. Focusing on textual and visual images employed by Hogarth's detractors to belittle him, it explores how these metaphors may be connected with the ico-nography he employed in The Bathos, and the extent to which the work may be 'read' as a representation of the artist himself, and his view of his reputation at the end of his career. Contrasting the pessimistic image Hogarth presents in his final work with the afterlife writing of his achievements by his contemporaries , it concludes with reflection on the role that his grave continues to play in celebrating his life and his status as one of the most talented and innovative artists of the eighteenth century.
One thing in life we can be certain of: death. But how we talk about death—its inevitability, its... more One thing in life we can be certain of: death. But how we talk about death—its inevitability, its causes and its course, its effects, or its places—is susceptible to changing cultural conditions. Reviewing a history of death that begins in prehistory, the distinguished historian of death Thomas Laqueur doubts it is possible to comprehend (in both senses) the topic: ‘Our awareness of death and the dead stands at the edge of culture. As such they may not have a history in the usual sense but only more and more iterations, endless and infinitely varied, that we shape into n engagement with the past and the present’.
ABSTRACT Strong Room, by the artist and researcher Jane Wildgoose and the artist Roelof Bakker, w... more ABSTRACT Strong Room, by the artist and researcher Jane Wildgoose and the artist Roelof Bakker, was published in 2014 by Negative Press London, a small press established by Bakker with the aim of initiating collaborations in print between artists and writers. Strong Room mixes photographs showing traces of preserved past human activity with writing, which highlights the loss of tangible experience and lack of physical presence in the digital world. Reflecting on the aesthetics of abandoned workspaces and the historical and academic importance of paper-based archives, Bakker and Wildgoose explore the potential for perceptions of materiality to prompt the imagination and evoke memories. In this article, the artists reflect on a range of subjective responses to archives and archival materials and discuss the background to their collaborative approach to developing the book: presenting a selection of Bakker's photographs together with extracts from the accompanying essays in Strong Room.
This essay discusses some of the ways in which human hair and bones may be perceived as materials... more This essay discusses some of the ways in which human hair and bones may be perceived as materials that “speak” to us. It examines the craft skills and beliefs associated with incorporating human hair into mourning artifacts during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries in northern Europe and North America. In addition, it compares these ways of making and knowing how to listen to the dead with the “deaf ear,” which was turned by scientific collectors to the skulls they amassed in great numbers in museums during the Victorian colonial period. It concludes with an account of how the author has taken her practice as a contemporary artist in new directions in recent years—learning the skills and applying the knowledge of nineteenth-century amateur hairworkers to make a new commemorative hair wreath, which encourages reflection on a historical legacy that has led to claims for the repatriation of ancestral bones from museum collections.
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