St Fagan's; Reimagining The Archive Exhibition

Last semester at university I was fortunate to have a unique opportunity to work on a live brief for St Fagans National Museum of History. The brief was to reimagine objects from their archives. As a maker, I was instinctively intrigued by the possibilities of recreating the 3D objects out of hard materials, which are materials my practice often incorporates.

For an energetic project start, fuelling an abundance of creativity we were invited on a two-day research trip to immerse ourselves in the vast heritage the site holds. My project concept stemmed from my fascination with the mantelpiece scenes in the village cottages. I was specifically inspired by the forms and materiality of the objects. This led me to become intrigued by how I could reimagine these scenes, recreating objects out of traditional materials through technological processes.

The museum’s artefacts hold a wealth of memories. Parallel with the objects’ interesting forms, I became inspired by the delicate patterns on their surfaces. This made me question how the patterns could break free, coming to life off the objects, creating new narratives.

Traditional and digital drawings provided the foundations of my design process, which saw me laser cut forms out of paper, before selecting final designs to be laser cut out of metal and water jet cut out of ceramics. I chose to laser cut objects out of a mix of copper and mild steel, which was powder coated in a colour pallet inspired by the architecture within the museum.

The live brief ended in an exhibition, Reimagining The Archive held at the museum. I chose to adapt my display for the Gweithdy gallery as it is a location celebrating craftsmanship skills and materiality. I Installed my objects on a narrow board echoing a mantelpiece form.

Whilst challenging and developing my knowledge of materiality and design skills, the brief gave me the opportunity to exhibit my work in a public location, whilst gaining positive feedback. My experience of the live brief has inspired me to continue to develop 3d objects for my major project alongside 2d surface samples, which I found my strength in last year. This project challenged me to explore working in 3d further, whilst continuing to investigate materiality and their properties.

From this experience, I have gained knowledge regarding how my 3d forms and objects could be exhibited in galleries in the future. I also gained experience of liaising with curators and working as part of a team to install the exhibition across the site in one day.

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