Conservare, Conversari, Convertere, 2018
This collaborative project aimed to explore new strategies for responding creatively to an archive by disrupting static representation of objects (photographs, letters, articles, etc.) and bringing different layers of understanding to the latter. The experience of working with various objects from the Women’s Library archives (London School of Economics) allowed me to engage with London’s suffragette past and re-situate it from a geographical, temporal, cultural context to another. And by shifting the meaning of selected objects from the archive - playing with them graphically - I tried to shift or reframed documentary narratives created around the suffragette heritage.
Methodologically, I approached archival objects by working with them through three sections: conservare, conversari and convertere. When 'walking' from one section to another, I was trying to show how some objects from the past create unexpected connotations, emotions or, even new connections to other objects and experiences.
Conservare (from Latin: to preserve) is a section where I present objects-chosen by the curator, Gillian Murphy, from the Women’s Library archives-from an archivist perspective. To understand the archive, we should reflect on the power of archives in construction of collective memory from individual documents. According to Pierre Nora there is an “imperative of our epoch” to try to protect not only each piece of our memory - even if we do not know exactly what kind of memory we preserve - but also we need to create archives. It is important to say that whether an object might hold a particular significance is not known until it is not confronted with our own perceptions and senses. Our interpretation and our understanding of archival objects depends on how we see the world. But the objects, in their turn, affects our perspective of apprehending the world.
Conversari (from Latin: to ponder) is a section where I look critically at archival objects by asking questions and making hypothesis statements on their behalf. I want to shift meanings associated with an archival object as a passive, forgotten, passé item. With the centenary celebration of women’s suffrage in the UK, I am keen to activate the Women’s Library archives by engaging creatively with its objects. And by getting into conversation with 'them' I hope to bring a new perspective to the archive. Rather than seeing an archive as a place where documents are stored I consider it as a space of human interactions.
Convertere (from Latin: to invert) is a section where I appropriate archival objects by re-positioning or re-mixing them. With the use of photomontage and other graphic strategies I want to produce tensions between visual and documentary representations of the suffragette artefacts. Therefore, this creative juxtaposition of ''official'' and personal (visual) narratives could be one of way of shedding light on the collection of the Women’s Library archives and make it more visible or accessible.
Overall, I wanted to create a body of work that would give a new insight into objects from the past and, also, generate discussion about a speculative archive - a combination of the known and unknown - that is often regarded as an alternative to the conventional systems of archiving, classifying and organizing.
CONSERVARE
Ref no:7WAR/04
Title: Emmeline Pankhurst in prison uniform, knitting
Description: Photograph, printed, paper, monochrome, Mrs Pankhurst featured knitting in prison dress, against background painted to resemble prison cell, signed ‘E.Pankhurst’
Date:c.1909
Ref no:7WAR/04
Title: Emmeline Pankhurst in prison uniform, knitting
Description: Photograph, printed, paper, monochrome, Mrs Pankhurst featured knitting in prison dress, against background painted to resemble prison cell, signed ‘E.Pankhurst’
Date:c.1909
CONVERSARE
WHAT ARE YOU KNITTING?
HEY, PUT A SOCK IN IT, WILL YOU!
IT SHOULD REMAIN SECRET.
WHAT ARE YOU KNITTING?
HEY, PUT A SOCK IN IT, WILL YOU!
IT SHOULD REMAIN SECRET.
CONVERTERE
CONSERVARE
Ref No:7RMB/B/3
Title: Suffrage papers
Description:Letters, papers, publications and press cuttings. Includes documents relating to imprisonment of suffragettes and an account of a trial at the Old Bailey for pillar box damage, correspondence, suffrage papers including the score of The March of the Women, and the 1st and 2nd annual reports of the Greenwich and Deptford Women's Social & Political Union.
Date:1890-1938
Ref No:7RMB/B/3
Title: Suffrage papers
Description:Letters, papers, publications and press cuttings. Includes documents relating to imprisonment of suffragettes and an account of a trial at the Old Bailey for pillar box damage, correspondence, suffrage papers including the score of The March of the Women, and the 1st and 2nd annual reports of the Greenwich and Deptford Women's Social & Political Union.
Date:1890-1938
CONVERSARE
SLOGANEERING?
NO. MANIFESTO.
SLOGANEERING?
NO. MANIFESTO.
CONVERTERE
