9 June - 28 August 2021

For this our thirteenth Kent University Foundation Degree in Fine Art – collaborative partnership with Maidstone Museum, COVID has required we do things a little differently to keep everyone safe. Therefore we present an online catalogue of images and statements from the students about their work via a QR code, an intervention wholly appropriate for inclusion in a Cabinet of Curiosity.

Working together with the Museum staff and the Fda specifications, the students have produced intriguing artworks, generated by the myriad of ideas gleaned from the Museum collections and their histories, and even the fabric of the buildings themselves. These are exhibited within the larger collection of the Museums colour themed “Cabinets of Curiosity”.

The students and myself would like to thank the Maidstone Museum staff for their continuous support and enthusiasm. And to Oliver Bowdidge and Owen Boyd at North Kent College for enabling us to produce this online catalogue.

Jane Hamilton
Course tutor

For further information on all courses offered at the college visit: enquireswestkent@northkentac.uk

West Kent college, Brook Street, Tonbridge TN9 2PW, 01732 358101

To contact a course tutor, please email: samuelherbert@northkent.ac.uk, or janehamilton@northkent.ac.uk

STUART CLARK
An Explosion of Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts

I like to get movement into my work and I think this piece has a feeling of action and being on wire springs, any movement in the display cabinet will make the sweets move slightly to give that feeling of aftershock.

Bassets had a sweet factory in St Peters Street Maidstone from 1981 until 2000 and that is represented in the museum by a dress in the costume area, which has a liquorice allsorts print. It looks fun and lively.

I also reference the explosion and excitement of the piece
as a metaphor for all the many ideas and exhibits on show in
the museum. I wanted to represent the thrill of the learning
opportunities on offer ”it’s like being a child in a sweetshop”.

REBECCA SAUNDERS
Saying Grace: The Octopig and His Betrayers

Some of the animals in Maidstone Museum’s taxidermy collection have been displayed in a way that they interact with one another, such as a predator stalking its prey, which has prompted me to develop my own dialogue between animals.

I have created a tableau featuring hybrid creatures, like the exotic and mythical beings displayed in Cabinets of Curiosities. This dinner time scene is inspired by the
painting Saying Grace: The Skipper and His Crew, from the museum’s art collection and I hope to encourage visitors’ imagination regarding the story behind this seemingly cannibalistic mealtime.

CARLOTTA PRETI
Che Morte Ironica

This piece was inspired by the skull of the Great Irish Elk, its antlers resemble barbed wire. The cause for them going extinct was that their antlers were too big and they got them stuck in trees; they grew too large and heavy to the point that they couldn’t even lift their heads anymore.

‘Che Morte Ironica’ translates to ‘what an ironic death’ as one would assume that deer use their antlers to protect themselves. For these animals it was their demise.

NEIL EASTELL
Intervention

This sculpture was inspired by the relationship between the original museum building and the award-winning, glazed extension added in 2012.

The addition of a striking glass cube to the original stone and brick building was a bold architectural statement. I chose to highlight this by inserting fragile glass between heavy stone, emphasising its surprising strength. The stone is finely balanced, reflecting the need for museums to carefully balance conservation with public access and to present artefacts from the past in ways that appeal to visitors today and in the future.

JANET TIDY
Made and Found Treasures

Joseph Cornell and his use of varied style cabinets gave me the idea of using three acrylic cubes as my own Cabinet of Curiosity.

These can be displayed one on top of the other if space is limited, as well as being seen from different sides.

My artwork is linked to Maidstone Museum’s display of a small Egyptian cabinet within a larger one.

Three examples of the treasures in it are a green frog that I made in memory of my mother’s herb garden, three worry dolls made in Guatemala, and a blue clay pot – being my first successfully made piece of pottery.

HELEN TYNAN
Escroe

‘A scroll (from the old French Escroe), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment or paper used in Eastern Mediterranean and Ancient Egyptian civilisations.’ From The Collins English Dictionary.

In this case the scroll is made from latex. Cast from the rubber floor of the Museum’s Education Room, this piece creates a connection between the fabric of the building, the Ancient Egyptian collections housed within it and the artist’s exploration into latex as a material for sculpting. Highlighting its relationship with learning and education the scroll is displayed on a stack of timeworn library books.

LOUISA WILLIAMS
Momento Mori

Inspired by the museum’s Victorian collections of insects as well as the trinkets and memorabilia that purely mark a moment in time. Ordinary objects that are elevated by the fact that they are in a museum and behind glass – in cabinets of curiosity. I have taken natural flora and turned them into porcelain husks. Elevating them from transient objects to something more permanent yet delicate – calicified remains.
Reminding us of the Victorian motif “momento mori”and the Japanese hanami and momijigari, philosophizing that things are at their most splendid at the moment before their fall.

JENNY THOMAS
Sew, Over Leaves

My inspiration for this piece was the Tapa, the chief’s cloaks that were made out
of tree bark. I experimented with real leaves, sewing them together and printing
on them. However I found that they became too fragile, so I decided to create
something out of fabric and paper with leaf shapes and stitching instead. I wanted to create a 3D piece which was slightly translucent.

Curiouser & Curiouser

9 June - 28 August 2021