Get in on the Secret…. March 2015

March 10, 2015March 31, 2015startind Leave a comment

Royal College of Art Stewarts Law Secret Postcard Show March 2015

Secret Revealed (Postcard from personal collection)

The RCA Secret Exhibition is a firm favourite on the London Calendar. Potential buyers camp outside, sometimes a week in advance, in the hope of purchasing a work by a famous artist. All the works are available at the same price of £55 and each year the name of the artist is hidden from the public. Signed only on the reverse the identity of the artist is not revealed until after the sale closes. The sale of original postcard sized works including emerging artists at the RCA, technicians and staff, is held in the Dyson Gallery in Hester Road, Battersea. This year RCA Secret also heads off to Dubai to double the effort to raise funds to assist those who are offered places to study at the RCA. Due to the considerable rise in fees many promising students and artists who receive an offer to study, an achievement in itself, are feeling the increased financial pressure and in some cases are simply unable to take up their offer of a place.

Funds from the show go toward supporting emerging and established artists studying at the RCA. In 2014 2,900 postcards were created and donated to RCA Secret. Can you put your money on a firm favourite by spotting works by Grayson Perry, Richard Long or Paula Rego (just some of the long list of established artists that supported RCA Secret in 2014), or is it perhaps time to take a gamble and invest in an artist of the future? RCA Secret is 21 this year and in acknowledgement prominent international curators have been invited to commission 3 artists to contribute postcards to the sale. Visit FAD for more information.

Things are happening a little differently this year as you can no longer view the postcards online prior to the exhibition, they are remaining a secret until the exhibition opens on Thursday 12 March, at 11am you will be able to view the postcards online and select your favourites. You need to register as a buyer and can purchase up to a maximum of four postcards. RCA secret is open until Friday 20 March 2015, 11am–6pm daily (late opening until 9pm on 19 March only), and admission is free to all visitors. Saturday 21 March 2015 is sale day and from 8am–6pm the exhibition will be open only to buyers.

Visit RCA Secret 2015 for more information.

Goodbye to all that

December 31, 2014December 31, 2014startind

Wish you were here © Denise Startin

“Resolve to perform what you ought, perform without fail what you resolve” Benjamin Franklin, polymath

Resolve: decide with an effort of will, separate the component parts of, make clear, settle. conclude, determine, intend, disentangle, explain, solve, unravel…
Resolute: firm in purpose, bold, constant, determined, dogged, persevering, purposeful, steadfast, undaunted, unflinching, unshaken, unwavering
Resolution: Declaration, determination, intention, purpose, firmness of conduct or character, act of resolving
Actions: Be, be, be, Do, do, do, Commit, commit, commit, Act, act, act, Reflect, reflect, reflect, Repeat, repeat, repeat, Anon [‘anon anon’]

‘It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little

– do what you can!” Sydney Smith, English Writer and Clergyman

Yours for a resolute 2015

Dmonogram1

Quotes reproduced from http://www.famous-quotes.com/author.php?page=1&total=40&aid=6825

Merry Christmas Every Bodies/Thanks for following

December 25, 2014December 22, 2015startind

Winter Path

“Did I Love a dream?

My doubt, accumulation of a former night, ends up
As many a subtle branch, that having remained the true
Woods themselves, proves, alas! that I offered myself alone.”

Extract from “L’après-midi d’un faune”, The Afternoon of a Faun 1875 by Stéphane Mallarmé, quoted in The Poetics of Occasion, Mallarmé and the Poetry of Circumstance, Marian Zwerling Sugano, Stanford University Press, California, 1992:pp.38.

Image reproduced from http://muckmiremarsh.blogspot.co.uk/, accessed 22122013

Micro Residency, Archaeology Team: The Geneaology of Erddig House

November 16, 2014December 15, 2014startind

Joshua Edisbury, member of the Edisbury family of Marchwiel, Flintshire is described in The Chronicles of Erthig on the Dyke by Albinia Lucy Cust (1914) as “not at all a satisfactory husband, but never an unkind one, and to judge by his letters, a devoted lover after ten years of married life”. [1] Edisbury built Erddig House, which was designed by Thomas Webb in 1683, and started laying out the garden in 1684-87 by demolishing the old house and recycling the materials into the new house implying that the former was erected on a different site to the latter [2]. For Edisbury it was a costly and disastrous exercise financially and he was forced into re-mortgaging parts of the estate to meet the demands of his creditors. In support his brother John borrowed money from the fees belonging to the court of the Chancery until he was eventually forced to resign his office and bought to trial when repayments could not be made. John died in 1713 leaving Joshua in a legal battle to repossess his estates. Later that year the Court of the Chancery ordered the estate to be sold to the highest bidder. The estate passed to John Meller in 1714, Meller had succeeded John Edisbury as one of the Masters of the Chancery. John Meller of Erddig (1665-1733) made many improvements to the house extending it by adding 2 wings to the North and South. He also began laying out the current parkland as it can be seen today [2]. He was unmarried and on his death the house and estate passed to his nephew Simon Yorke, originally from Wiltshire, who became Simon Yorke I of Erddig (1696 –1767). From this point onwards the Yorke Family were the custodians of Erddig for over 2 centuries. (Taking this into account although the history at Erddig House is considerable and relatively long in terms of human habitation it could be considered a snapshot in time in relation to the ancient landscape that surrounds it, dating as it does back to early medieval and medieval times.)

Simon’s son and heir, Phillip Yorke I (1743-1804) made improvements to the House & Grounds and due to an inheritance of property from his uncle James Hutton he won the hand of Elizabeth Cust (1750-1779), daughter of Sir James Cust, Speaker of the House of Commons. Phillip Yorke I is most well-known for his antiquarian studies into the history of Wales resulting in the book The Royal Tribes of Wales, 1799. This book is on display at Erddig in The Tribes Room so named because it is decorated with the Heraldry and Coats of Arms reproduced from Philip’s book. Upon his death the estate passed to his eldest son Simon Yorke II (1771-1834) and then onto his son Simon Yorke III (1811-1894). In 1846 he married his cousin Victoria Mary Louisa Cust (1824-1895), the youngest daughter of Sir Edward Cust. Their son Philip Yorke II (1849-1922), inherited the estate on their deaths and was succeeded by his eldest son, Simon Yorke IV (1903-1966). Finally the estate passed to his brother and the last remaining heir of Erddig, Philip Yorke III (1905-1978). [3] Both brothers remained lifelong bachelors and Philip Yorke III led a colourful life as a travelling actor, the manager of a band of players and a tour guide on the continent.

Continue reading →

Micro Residency, Artist Researcher, Archaeology Team, Erddig House & Gardens, Nr. Wrexham, Wales

November 5, 2014December 3, 2014startind

I have returned from the Yale Hostel at Erddig (which dates back to the 17th Century) where I completed a 6 week Micro Residency as Artist Researcher (Interpretation) for the Archaeology Team. I will be posting the results of my time spent at Erddig and extrapolating links between art and archaeology in a series of blogs. I am currently processing the research of which there is a significant amount relating to A] Deep Mapping: Stories in the Landscape, B] The Map & The Territory, C] Documenting the Process and D] Visualising and Representing the Data. This process meant conducting research on and off site utilising the Erddig collection online, the collection in the house itself, field research in the landscape and the Erddig Archives in nearby Flintshire. In the meantime here is a brief overview of the landscape at Erddig, its archaeological monuments and the Archaeological Historic Landscape Survey.

The Landscape
The grounds at Erddig (pronounced Erthig) contain numerous features of Archaeological significance dating back to Early Medieval (5th-10thC) & Medieval times (up to 15thC). The earliest recorded man-made feature within the parkland is Wat’s Dyke which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is currently dated circa 8^th Century, although several articles I have consulted cannot seem to corroborate this. Wat’s Dyke is a linear earthwork consisting of a bank & ditch designed to erect a boundary around the land for the purpose of enclosure and defence. It is likely that natural features of the landscape were incorporated into the design of the Dyke allowing a high bank with a ditch to run along the length of a territorial boundary between Wales & England. Wat’s Dyke, approx. 64 kilometres in length, runs through the Erddig estate and along the remaining site of a Motte & Bailey Castle (circa 12th Century). The Motte & Bailey (also a Scheduled Ancient Monument) overlooks the Dyke to the north of Erddig House. The Motte, which is a raised earthwork would have consisted of a strategically placed wooden building perhaps 2 storeys high and the associated Bailey, on a different site nearby, would have served an administrative function i.e stables, outbuildings, forges etc.

Also of Archaeological significance are the Cup and Saucer Waterfall, by landscape designer William Emes (1774). This cylindrical manmade vertical waterfall and Grade II* Listed Structure is the inflow to John Blake’s patented (1890) Hydraulic Ram Pump nearby (also a Grade II listed structure) which pumps water up to the house and gardens. Other key archaeological features include the Ridge & Furrow (signs of past agricultural use in the parkland) The Kings Mill & Mills Leats (water-mills with their “associated wiers and sluices 18th Century”) [1]. The Designed Parkland (or Pleasure Gardens), at Erddig is a Cadw “Grade I listed Parkland of international importance”. This means that the Erddig landscape is highly significant historically as well as archaeologically, Cadw state there are only approximately 10% of these sites with a Grade I listing*. The Designed Garden, is one of the finest examples (albeit an accurately and carefully reconstructed interpretation of the original design) of a formal 18th Century garden in the ‘Dutch’ style with later Victorian additions. The Archaeological Survey also includes features that have been lost from the designed landscape such as the The Dairy or China House and smaller outbuildings which were demolished due to their state of disrepair. [1]

Continue reading →