Story 38 Exhibition

It’s regrettably been over a month since my work with the George Rodger Archive was exhibited and yet I’ve not written up about it. From 30th May until 5th June 2014, Story 38 was showcased at the Lanchester Gallery in Coventry.

The piece compromised of an A1 print of the archive, an eighty page book about the Nuba tribe, two audio recordings and two prints donated by Jinx. I wanted the work in the gallery to be a unique experience for a viewer as this material is not available online in much depth or detail.

The opening night was a great success with over 250 people in the gallery socialising and appreciating the hard work of all of the artists. I felt a great sense of achievement as my work sat modestly in the corner.

The prints from the archive sat at right-angles to the wall as the frames were double sided, exposing the front and the back of the prints. Jinx stressed her fascination with the writing and stamps on the reverse of the prints and so I was keen to share this detail with the public. It was a great honour for Jinx to so kindly lend these prints from the collection; I will be returning them in due course.

The audio pieces were taken from hours of recordings and layered with ambient sounds. The two headphones played a recording of Jinx reading George’s diary entry from 1st March 1949 and a letter addressed to Jinx a couple of weeks after.

Finally the photobook looked more closely at the story of the Nuba tribe as told by Jinx and the archive, showcasing parts of the archive not seen by the public before. I have kept these images safe from the internet to preserve a sense of mystery and intrigue.

I was met with much praise and support for this project and it is a shame that I cannot dedicate any more time to it without any further financial support. I was extremely pleased reading the article by Phil Coomes from the BBC about my project which you can find here.