April 30, 2012
The Felling On May 25th 1812 an explosion rocked the Felling Mine sending a plume of ash into the sky, turning the light of midmorning dark as twilight. 92 men and boys were killed when the fire damp deep down below ignited. The bedrock of an entire community was shaken. Those tremors were felt throughout the country and led to the call for a safer way to light the deep. From that call came two safety lamps – the Davy and the Geordie.  Artist Dawn Felicia Knox set out to create a visual memorial to mark the bicentenary of the tragedy and the urgent spirit of invention that resulted. The Felling pit now stands an abandoned waste ground given way to fly-tipping and tyre burning. The footprints of the old industry are just visible – graffitied buildings, a crumbling chimney and a copse of trees crooked atop an old slag heap.  Dawn Felicia Knox began by photographing the remnants. She then researched history and legacy of the mine focusing on the geological formations and the paleobotany specimens retrieved from the depths by the miners for William Hutton. The fossils, many type specimens, were vital in determining the age of earth and setting the stage for scientific understanding to come. She photographed the specimens which are housed in the stores of the Great North Museum. Knox further collected archival photographs of the working pit, documentation and ephemera relating to the accident include maps, first-hand accounts and expert analysis which she photographed. She brought the images back to the site of the Felling Pit and projected them across the abandoned structures. The prints of the projections will form the core of her installation from which the further layered prints and projections will move out. The photographs she made of the site will be projected in the Mining Institute falling across the centre elevator shaft and sculptures constructed from materials salvaged from the pithead as well as book covers and spines recovered from the Mining Institute Library. The Felling exhibition will span time showing images made of the three hundred and twenty million year old fossils brought up from six hundred feet below ground, archival images of the working pit from a hundred years ago projected onto the derelict site as it stands today. The images, threaded together with the narrative of the tragedy, will stand as an elegant elegy to the 92 men and boys killed.

The Felling

On May 25th 1812 an explosion rocked the Felling Mine sending a plume of ash into the sky, turning the light of midmorning dark as twilight. 92 men and boys were killed when the fire damp deep down below ignited. The bedrock of an entire community was shaken. Those tremors were felt throughout the country and led to the call for a safer way to light the deep. From that call came two safety lamps – the Davy and the Geordie.  Artist Dawn Felicia Knox set out to create a visual memorial to mark the bicentenary of the tragedy and the urgent spirit of invention that resulted.

The Felling pit now stands an abandoned waste ground given way to fly-tipping and tyre burning. The footprints of the old industry are just visible – graffitied buildings, a crumbling chimney and a copse of trees crooked atop an old slag heap.  Dawn Felicia Knox began by photographing the remnants. She then researched history and legacy of the mine focusing on the geological formations and the paleobotany specimens retrieved from the depths by the miners for William Hutton. The fossils, many type specimens, were vital in determining the age of earth and setting the stage for scientific understanding to come. She photographed the specimens which are housed in the stores of the Great North Museum. Knox further collected archival photographs of the working pit, documentation and ephemera relating to the accident include maps, first-hand accounts and expert analysis which she photographed. She brought the images back to the site of the Felling Pit and projected them across the abandoned structures. The prints of the projections will form the core of her installation from which the further layered prints and projections will move out. The photographs she made of the site will be projected in the Mining Institute falling across the centre elevator shaft and sculptures constructed from materials salvaged from the pithead as well as book covers and spines recovered from the Mining Institute Library.

The Felling exhibition will span time showing images made of the three hundred and twenty million year old fossils brought up from six hundred feet below ground, archival images of the working pit from a hundred years ago projected onto the derelict site as it stands today. The images, threaded together with the narrative of the tragedy, will stand as an elegant elegy to the 92 men and boys killed.

6:04am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwKcCp5G
(Notes: 3)
  
April 30, 2012
the Felling

the Felling

4:15am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwKc4b6Q
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: The late Shows Hutton Fossils The Felling Mining Disaster The Mining Institute 
March 13, 2012
Nomen Nudum at the Great North Museum An image of one of the new pieces installed at the Great North Museum: Hancock

Nomen Nudum at the Great North Museum

An image of one of the new pieces installed at the Great North Museum: Hancock

6:23am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwHwGF7t
(Notes: 2)
  
February 21, 2012
Nomen Nudum: Naked Name This work will be hidden amongst the shelves of the Great North Museum Library and will include two new pieces to be shown for the first time.

Nomen Nudum: Naked Name

This work will be hidden amongst the shelves of the Great North Museum Library and will include two new pieces to be shown for the first time.

9:20am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwGnSN-f
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: platypus wombat Great North Museum 
February 9, 2012
Spinning always Spinning The fibre, the story and the intent catch then intertwine Thinking about this work again; the objects needed to encode narrative, the narrative latent in the object/artefacts.

Spinning always Spinning

The fibre, the story and the intent catch then intertwine

Thinking about this work again; the objects needed to encode narrative, the narrative latent in the object/artefacts.

6:59am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwG84TCW
November 10, 2011
The Absence of Women’s Work  From the body of work entitled We Read in the House Our Fathers Built In the early binderies women would fold and stitch, fold and stitch, fold and stitch, for upwards of 12 hours. Women were not allowed to work leather, use the boiling caldrons of rabbit-skin glue or cut the milled boards. They would sit days in and out with their bone folders and needles always stitching and sewing. This piece is entitled ‘The Absence of Women’s Work’ because the leather is worked, the board cut, glue applied yet there are no pages folded or stitched.

The Absence of Women’s Work

 From the body of work entitled We Read in the House Our Fathers Built

In the early binderies women would fold and stitch, fold and stitch, fold and stitch, for upwards of 12 hours. Women were not allowed to work leather, use the boiling caldrons of rabbit-skin glue or cut the milled boards. They would sit days in and out with their bone folders and needles always stitching and sewing. This piece is entitled ‘The Absence of Women’s Work’ because the leather is worked, the board cut, glue applied yet there are no pages folded or stitched.

6:39am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwBkngmD
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: bookbinding women's work Lit and Phil 
October 17, 2011
spinning, always spinning This is the last News of the World unabridged. Spinning, always spinning is on display at the Gallery of Wonder in the Great North Museum from September 28 until October 28

spinning, always spinning

This is the last News of the World unabridged.

Spinning, always spinning is on display at the Gallery of Wonder in the Great North Museum from September 28 until October 28

5:40am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwAnQIzK
Filed under: News of the world knitting newspaper spinning paper 
September 29, 2011
Nomen Nudum When I exhibited the images of both the letters and specimen, I chose to display them in a Solander box which I constructed using material recycled from the Lit and Phil Bindery.  A Solander box is named after Daniel Solander who accompanied Joseph Banks on Cook’s voyage.  It was Solander and Banks who first explored Australia in the name of science on that voyage.

Nomen Nudum

When I exhibited the images of both the letters and specimen, I chose to display them in a Solander box which I constructed using material recycled from the Lit and Phil Bindery.  A Solander box is named after Daniel Solander who accompanied Joseph Banks on Cook’s voyage.  It was Solander and Banks who first explored Australia in the name of science on that voyage.

7:56am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwA3ymQz
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: wombat Lit and Phil The Great North Museum Bookbinding 
September 29, 2011

Nomen Nudum

The wombat was also given to the Literary and Philosophical Society in 1799 by Governor John Hunter of New South Wales, Australia. Joseph Banks of Captain Cook’s second voyage fame, acted as the conduit between the society and the governor. I have photographed both the Wombat specimen, on display at the Great North Museum, and the letters from Hunter and Banks, archived at the Lit and Phil Library.

7:50am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuwA3yRNh
Filed under: wombat John Hunter Lit and Phil Great North Museum 
September 16, 2011
Nomen Nudum I constructed this box with book covers, given to waste by wear and red rot, recycled from the shelves of the Lit and Phil Library. Inside lays a photograph of the actual platypus skin which was originally gifted to the Lit and Phil in 1799, the same skin which fell free from its cask of salt and alcohol washing across the body of a petrified woman and landing on the cobbled streets of the quayside in 1800. Parallel to the photo lays the actual spine of the book issues in early 1800’s by Shaw which first describes, names and indeed illustrates the platypus. It is the book in which he concedes his suspicions about the validity of the specimen and further articulates the levels of rigor he applied to prove its realness. The magnifying lens is provided for deeper study and is fixed to the box by the original string used to hold the pieces of the book together while it waited to be rebound.

Nomen Nudum

I constructed this box with book covers, given to waste by wear and red rot, recycled from the shelves of the Lit and Phil Library. Inside lays a photograph of the actual platypus skin which was originally gifted to the Lit and Phil in 1799, the same skin which fell free from its cask of salt and alcohol washing across the body of a petrified woman and landing on the cobbled streets of the quayside in 1800. Parallel to the photo lays the actual spine of the book issues in early 1800’s by Shaw which first describes, names and indeed illustrates the platypus. It is the book in which he concedes his suspicions about the validity of the specimen and further articulates the levels of rigor he applied to prove its realness. The magnifying lens is provided for deeper study and is fixed to the box by the original string used to hold the pieces of the book together while it waited to be rebound.

8:16am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZUcKuw9aQ2So
Filed under: platypus George shaw's Zoological Lectures Lit and Phil Great North Museum 
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