Breathing Space by Caroline Broadhead. Photo: Jerry Hardman-Jones.
Safira Ali found a little space to breath at York St Mary's contemporary art gallery.
The latest exhibition at York St. Mary’s has transformed the entire interior of the church and is on show until October 9 2005.
Caroline Broadhead was commissioned by York Museums Trust to make a new installation in response to the space inside the former medieval church in the heart of York. Last year’s focus was on light, this year it is textiles.
With its high ceilings the building has a quiet atmosphere like a sanctuary, a place for contemplation and rest. Into this, Caroline has inserted a suspended ceiling.
Breathing Space by Caroline Broadhead. Photo: Jerry Hardman-Jones.
There are two layers to the installation. Looking up from the ground floor the audience is met with a layer of white material, which is made up of wadding and gives the feeling of a mattress.
Dimples in the material made by small pieces of lead buttons tied to the ceiling, give a quilt-like effect and contrast the airiness and warmth of the wadding with the weight of the lead.
Breathing Space by Caroline Broadhead. Photo: Jerry Hardman-Jones.
The building’s large windows add another dimension, by creating natural lighting. The effect changes from warm and safe to eerie as night approaches.
"The ceiling forms a screen on which to catch the light from above," explained Caroline, "artificial light in the nave and natural light through the windows."
But the installation is not just about this one aspect. If you listen carefully a subtle sound accompanies it, the sound of a baby breathing, recorded from a baby-monitor by composer Graeme Miller.
Breathing Space by Caroline Broadhead. Photo: Jerry Hardman-Jones.
The work can also be viewed from above by exiting the building and entering through another door. This top layer, although similar to the lower one, shows a different view and has the feel of clouds floating in mid air.
The dimpled effect gives the wadding a realistic cloudy feel and it looks almost heavenly, in connection with the surrounding area.
The artist at work. Photo: Jerry Hardman-Jones.
“It took 15 months of planning, and three weeks to put it all together,” said Caroline. “The building has been changed in the 11th century, 13th and 15th century etc. it is an organic development. The next level is for someone else to add to it, to try to level the previous work," she added.
Her installation, she explained, “can be something for others to take refuge in, but like a duvet it is also smothering.”
Caroline has been exhibiting her work for the last 30 years and it can be found in public collections in the UK, Europe, Japan and Australia.
As well as being a reader in Jewellery and Textiles at Middlesex University, she won the Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts: Textiles in 1997 and the Textiles International Open in Belfast in 2004.
Safira Ali is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the Yorkshire region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
