Everything I Have Ever Lost

Hello! I spent all of last week putting the finishing touches to my installation for our family exhibition that opened at The Glorious on Saturday. I spent a lot of time knitting a very small jumper and even longer labelling everything. Here are the pictures of Everything I Have Ever Lost. 

The theme and title for the exhibition is Horror Vacui. Originally a Latin phrase, meaning fear of the void, it is the act of filling of every possible surface. My mum, brother and I all explored our own fear of the void; producing completely different results. My own fear of the void was to do with loss of objects/places/people. You can see my statement above but for slightly easier viewing here it is in plain text:

I face my fear of the void by imaging everything that I have ever lost, reunited. My greatest hope is that on reaching the void familiar faces, clothes, homes and hats, will greet me; no longer will they be left on trains, owned by someone else or lying in the gutter but instead clustered together just waiting to be found. Loss is a feeling many have experienced. It can be extremely frustrating, sometimes life-changing and 

sometimes it can pass by with little consequence. Mostly though it is sad, one can often worry ‘what has become of that poor lost thing?’ 

I have spent many hours wondering this and here are the results; my lost things reimagined, 

all safe and sound and remembered as they were the last time that I saw them.

Most things are trivial and have left little impression on my life: loose change, hats or pot plants. However, other things have left greater voids: my Dad, homes, Arty the Scottish Deerhound. Remembering lost things offers a solace in the darkest moments; losing something no longer feels sad but instead a joy, in that I know it will join the other lost things and one day I too shall join them. All these things may be lost but they are not forgotten.

I re-created my lost things in a variety of mediums. Here's a list of all the lost things:

Moyne Park

Trennick Row

Zanzig

Stuart the Caravan

Owls House

Bohermore 

Arty the Scottish Deerhound

My Granny

My Aunty Bar

Harriet, Henrietta and Henry the Goldfish

Loose change

£100

Every photograph I took from 2008-2013

My Irish Accent

Cacti

The Gremlin

Faux fur hat

Straw boater

Blankie

Fisherman’s Jumper

My Marbles

My Dad

Capri the Cacti

Red lipstick x 2

Dizzy the Canary

Easter eggs

Gruffalo mug

Candy watch

Jade plant

The Chickens 

Blue glass vase

Pink floral mug

My passport

Socks

Green glass

Smelly donkey

Joni Mitchell record

Foliage plant

Edward the Rat

Flat Ted's red trousers

Claddagh ring

Lapis Lazuli ring

Blue ring

Pink horn rimmed glasses

Round glasses

My treasure box

Debs Bear's suitcase

Harry Potter book

Valley of the Dolls book

Floral mug

Iphone

Marz badge

Mobile phone

Graphite pencil set

Pentel pen

Orange wine glass

Blue embroidered wedges

 There are certainly more things to be added to this list but it's a work in progress. I'd love to know about your lost things (good and bad). Making this work has prompted me to take stock of the things/people/places in my life now and appreciate everything that I haven't lost, I hope that it might do the same for the viewer. 

You can visit the exhibition, Horror Vacui, at The Glorious from 8-6 Monday-Saturday and 10-4 on Sundays. 

On another note I recently did two interviews. The first for The Glorious' blog about Horror Vacui which you can read here and another more general one about my practise for Om Pom Happy which you can read here. Look out for my home which will also make an appearance later in the week on Om Pom Happy.

You can also read a review of our exhibition here.

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Cookery in Colour

I'm not much of a telly watcher but recently I discovered Back in Time for Dinner on BBC iPlayer and have become rather enthralled by the idea of travelling back in time through food. The programme follows The Robshaw's back in time starting in 1950. Their home is transformed for each decade and they only prepare and eat meals in keeping with the time; most of the recipes coming from The National Food Survey.  Each episode gives a fascinating incite into the meals people were eating and the gadgets and recipe books they were using. The latest episode saw them hit the 1970s; their kitchen transformed into an orange and brown delight, complete with lots of vegetable crockery. 

Just prior to discovering this programme, I purchased Marguerite Patten's seminal cookery book 'Cookery in Colour' published in 1968. The recipes are lurid, saturated and extremely kitsch. 

Some of the recipes are little strange (banana surprise anyone?) but the colours and pictures are so fabulous I couldn't pass it up in the charity shop. It cost me 50p and has provided me with enough inspiration to last a lifetime! I've amassed quite a collection of vintage cookbooks and pamphlets over the years from car boot sales and chazzas but this is certainly my favourite ever. Marguerite was extremely popular in the 60s/70s, in fact on showing my mum this purchase she revealed that she learnt to cook from this very book! Thankfully her cooking has progressed a little since then. Of course there is Delia too and the hilarious Franny Craddock.

All these colours and celeb cooks of the 70s got me in the mood for blue eyeshadow and polyester. These photographs are my ode to Marguerite, Franny, Delia and Mary! I think cooks these days could definitely do with an injection of colour and a few silly expressions.

Delia Smith
Source: 1

Mary Berry
Source: 2

Franny Craddock
Source: 3

My outfit is a glorious 1970s polyester set comprising of a shirt and skirt, which were actually found on separate occasions. The skirt my mum found in a charity shop in Cornwall several years ago and is about 100 sizes to big so I took the waistband in and now it's the perfect fit. The shirt I stumbled on 2 years ago, just after handing in my BA thesis, on a vintage shop sale rail on the Holloway Road. As you can imagine I was terribly excited to find the skirts counterpart! I love reuniting vintage items.  The glasses are vintage frames that I had fitted with my prescription online from INEEDSPEX - good value and very quick! The colour of them always reminds me of Sue Kreitzman's. She's a style inspiration of mine and guess what? She has spent much of her life writing cookbooks (before her turn to art)!

Sue Kreitzman now and then!
Source: 4 & 5

To complete the 1970s cookery queen look one obviously needs a whole host of crockery masquerading as vegetables. Below is a little of my collection mostly picked up at car boot sales (so excited that they are starting again this week, hooray for Spring!) I began collecting vegetableware quite some time ago after seeing Kaffe Fasset's enviable collection. 

Kaffe Fassett's kitchen dresser, Glorious Interiors, pg 127

Kaffe Fasset's dining room, Glorious Interiors, pp 110-111

My collection has grown considerably and now takes up quite a lot of my kitchen, leaving not an awful lot of space for anything else! Also note the tray on the shelf in these photographs, purchased from a car boot sale, it cropped up in Back in Time for Dinner's 70s episode. I'm also the proud owner a pineapple ice bucket, an essential for any hostess.

Back in Time for Dinner - 1970s, BBC 2

I'm going to attempt a few recipes from Marguerite's book for a 1970s dinner party soon so I'll be sure to post pictures of the results though I'm not sure I'll be able to reach her heady heights of culinary expertise.

I'll leave you with a clip from Delia Smith's Cookery Course, in this episode she teaches you how cook and eat Spaghetti for your Spaghetti Bolognese!

 I hope you are all having a wonderful week, I'm still hoping for that Easter heatwave!

Outfit Details

1970s polyester skirt and shirt set - Charity shops (purchased separately)

Vintage red plastic glasses - INEEDSPEX

Blue suede platforms - Urban Outfitters sale

Plastic beaded earrings - Topshop

Blue eyeshadow - Barry M

Matte Turquoise Nail Varnish - Barry M

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Saints Alive

Hello! Today I had to take some photographs of myself dressed as an angel for a workshop my mum and I are holding at Truro Arts Festival in two weeks. We'll be giving each participant a kit which will include a cut-out angel and lots of other fun elements to make a Mexican retablo style shrine. Retablo paintings and shrines traditionally tell stories of divine intervention. They are often very gory tales; look at Frida Kahlo's depicting the tragic collision that left her in a brace for the rest of her life, an incredibly emotive painting!

Frida Kahlo retablo

After snapping the angel photographs I took a few still dressed in my saint outfit. I mused on what a saint/angel might do in day to day life: recline on the sofa perhaps? Certainly not any housework, that's for sure! 

My ensemble was inspired by this wonderful picture of a Mexican angel

Source: 1

and these amazing retablo shrines.

Source: 2

 Source: 3

I've never worn this top with the skirt before; the skirt has a matching waistcoat (see it here) so I usually wear the two together however, I really like this combination so I think it might become a new favourite. 

Anyway I'm sure you're all dying to see me as an angel? Do feel free to print it, cut it out and make your own retablo shrine (if you do I'd love to see the results!)

I hope you are all having very productive weeks, mine has been pretty jam-packed so far. We're about to start doing Airbnb from April so I've been busy tidying the house and taking pictures for the listing. I'm so excited as I've heard many good things about people's experiences, both letting and visiting! I'd be really interested to hear any of your experiences, and any advice you might have. The listing will be up soon so I'll post it incase any of you fancy a break in Cornwall!

Outfit Details

1970s floral cotton skirt - vintage stall

Silk rebozo scarf - gift from my mum

Floral top - charity shop

Bangles - made by Penny MacBeth

Necklace with eye brooch attached - made by Penny MacBeth

Vintage beaded necklace - Oxfam

Felt flower headdress - Mrs MacBeth's Department Store

Pattern t-shirt - Uniqlo

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In Bloom

Spring is here; the first blooms have arrived in my garden, several little Primroses and a Hyacinth. My favourite of all the spring flowers is the Tulip, especially the wonderfully frilly Parrot Tulips. My tulips are yet to flower though so I'm making do with Lidl's finest for the moment.

I took these photographs yesterday. The light was wonderful, the bright fresh kind you only get in early Spring. It was, hopefully, the first of many more sunshine filled days. My ma snapped these  for me whilst we were taking some others for a project that will be revealed in a few months. Although you can't see all that much of it I'm wearing one of my most treasured dresses; a 1930s soft pink lace number handed down to me from my mum. She bought it in the 80s along with 4 others from an ex-dancer. I spent so many years staring at it when I was a child dreaming of the day that I'd be big enough to fit it! That day came and I wore it dancing, to tea parties, to go shopping in and to lounge at home in! Sadly it has very nearly reached the end of it's journey so it will have to be rejuvenated into a new garment soon. 

Here it is in happier days.. (taken by an v.old friend when I was about 18 in the window seat of my old bedroom)

These photographs were very much inspired by the beautiful seed packets of the 30s. I love the saturated colours and the collaging of hundreds of different kinds of flowers onto one packet. I think if seed packets looked like this now I'd have a garden stuffed with flowers!

Sources: 1, 2, 3

In other news I have a new exhibition alongside my mum at The Courtyard Deli in Falmouth, a lovely place for coffee if you are in Falmouth. We'll also be at Truro Arts Festival on March 30th hosting a workshop from 1-3 on shrine making. For £2 you'll get everything to make your own which you can take home. If making isn't your thing you can just come hang out and watch us make in our yurt from 10.30 that morning. Have a look at my events page for more information!

Finally you can see some pictures from my Virgin of Guadalupe series alongside a host of other talented gals work on Amelia's Magazine today. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Linking up with Share-in-Style

Outfit Details

Pink 1930s lace dress, bolero & neck tie - Gift from my mum

Pink 1930s embroidered shawl- Gift from my mum

Various assortment of flowers- H&M

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