MOBILE MUSEUM
Srilanka, SURA MEDURA A.I.R. 2014
Developed during ‘Sura Medura' Artist Residency in Sri Lanka (with UZ Arts.)
This object is designed to facilitate the idea of ‘curating everyday collections’ in different contexts. A basic museum mechanism that can form part the research and discussion for projects about places, people and their social or environmental history.
It is a prototype for an case carried on your back, that could function both as a space to collect, examine and which can also open out into a museum display table; for use on a road side curb, a public park, a train or bus stations etc. It offers potential for different people to use the materials gathered from their own environments to tell their own histories, opening this up in public spaces for wider conversations.
The display space leaves the objects exhibited exposed to the elements and to constant re-configuration, no glass and no fixtures. It is not an attempt to preserve or protect significant things, but to momentarily capture and reflect on them.
Collection no.1: Telwatta, Sri Lanka, 01/2014
The first collection found and displayed in Sri Lanka references the 2004 Tsunami that had a devastating impact on communities along the west coast of the Island. Reflecting on this, the display is a piecing together of the natural and the man-made fragments that can be found on that coastline, 10 years on. Often confused for one another. Looking for new connections, order and narrative between these similar, yet contradicting materials and shapes. Bark to brick, plastic to pebble, each equally wrapped in social, environmental and historical associations.
Exhibited
- Colombo Biennale Art Festival, Sri Lanka (2014), Garden of Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations
- Sura Medura, UZ Arts exhibition, Briggait, Glasgow (2014)
- Measures of Saving the World, Pt. 4 at <Rotor> Centre for contemporary Arts, Graz (2014)
The project is designed to evolve. The ‘Mobile Museum’ has been used as a tool in multiple workshops following its production. It is part of a series of works I have made which explore the design and use of mobile solutions, portable and non technical. Made from readily available and some times recycled materials found in situ. This series includes ‘The Nomadic Workshop,’ ‘One Cycle, One Sew,’ ‘The Nith Scoping kit,’ and ‘The Nolly.’