Objects of interest

by Janie Nicoll, 4 Feb 2008

Alex and I have fairly contrasting approaches to art-making and hopefully this is a healthy factor in our residency. Alex’s approach is fairly prolific, working through ideas at a rapid pace. I seem to be taking a lot longer to work out what I want to create or work with during the residency, I’ve been taking photographs and am interested in a lot of the artefacts that have ended up in the collections in Callendar House. Alex is interested in the cultural links with Falkirk and America, whereas I am more interested in investigating things closer to home, though maybe separated by time, history, and generations.

The archive and the collections at Callendar House are a vast resource that we have barely even begun to scratch the surface of. I have been taking an interest in various random objects, around the House; a sampler made by Janet Livingston in 1858, A Political Reform banner from 1832, a book of handwritten music: these feel like direct links with the people of the past. Today I visited the Museum Workshop in Grangemouth and was shown around by Emma Roodhouse, its like a smaller version of the Transport Museum and the Open Museum combined, with a huge range of objects, from large items like tram cars and many objects representing the heavy industries of the area, the ironworks etc. to smaller domestic items. I inevitably felt far more drawn to the things that are a representation of human interaction, the more feminine side of things. I ended up photographing handbags and purses and lace items, and looking at the clothes that are stored away in cupboards, in acid free tissue paper and boxes, until my camera battery ran out. One of the handbags was a post war number with a fake gold trim that fitted the bill rather nicely. I have started working with the theme of “All that Glitters Is Not Gold” as I am interested in “The Have’s and The Have Not’s”, the contrasts within society, a recurring element in much of the work I have been making recently, in particular the “Fake Gold Ring” I made for the exhibition at Intermedia Gallery, at the CCA.

Callendar House is such an obvious symbol of the landed gentry over several hundred years, and the contrasts within it are omnipresent. Tomorrow I am intending to photograph an Archive storeroom that has been restored to its original décor, complete with a gold leaf covered cornice. Its hidden away out of view, in an area not open to the public, but it must be one of the grandest storerooms I’ve ever seen. I’m interested in recording some of these symbols of ostentation and wealth, although it is equally interesting to discover the attic rooms where the servants lived, right at the top of the house, pretty much untouched since they were last occupied, a long while back.