Art / News
Gallery sets out to reveal ‘personal museums’ of students
Carefully arranged on the shelves in a gallery is a world of “collections” curated by students to reveal their “personal museums”.
The Stradling Collection on Park Row is running a free exhibition, to show that museums “do not have to be classical buildings” and collections to do not have to be antiques of “high monetary value”.
Director of The Collections and trustee for education, David Beech, believes collections can be anything including “a pair of socks” or our “home as a museum and all things in it a collection.”
is needed now More than ever
Salman Salad’s display of a collection of chairs made by repurposing three unwanted ironing boards
Curated by the vision of students from UWE Architecture, Cardiff School of Art and Design, Bristol School of Arts (SGS) and Castle School in Thornbury, the exhibition is open till October 5.
Gallery administrator at The Stradling Collection and MA History of Arts student, Orla McHale defined collections as “a bit like an organism”.
She added: “It is something that’s always growing, always changing”
84 feelings that Dee Szpera felt, while handcrafting terracotta vessels for 84 days
Dee Szpera of the Bristol School of Art handcrafted one terracotta vessel every day for 84 days, with each vessel symbolising their feelings on the day.
Talking about their collection, Szpera said: “Reflecting on significant past journeys, I chose to craft a series of small terracotta vessels, inspired by the unified chia vessels I saw during a trip to India years ago.”
Re-purposing ironing boards into chairs might sound like an unlikely vision, but Salman Salad of the Bristol School of Art made these “stylish pieces” into a reality.
He said: “The goal was to encourage viewers to reconsider the boundaries between art and everyday items. It was to emphasise the theme of upcycling throughout.”
Talking about the gallery, McHale added: “A lot of artists have this notion that every artist is a collector of some sort. This place was the personal collection of Ken Stradling, who passed away a couple of years ago. We’ve got over 2000 objects – ceramics, glasswork and furniture.
“He was a buyer and seller at the Bristol Guild, which is no longer there. He made his personal objects into a collection and created this charitable trust as he thought it would be nice for people to see them.”
A glimpse of terracotta vessels on display at ‘The Collections’ in The Stradling Collection on Park Row
The Collections is open for visitors on Wednesdays and Fridays between 1pm to 4pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am to 4.30pm.
All photos: Karen Johnson
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