(Not) Burning Bridges

Faye Claridge continues to blog about her artist's residency for Shifting Worlds at Ironbridge Gorge Museum with Meadow Arts

"I’m hoping to do something spectacular with The Ironbridge and as part of planning this I’ve been thinking about the bridge as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution. Bridges are a great symbol of unity, literally linking communities and enabling travel, but do they symbolise revolution?

The phrase ‘burning bridges’ is dramatic, riotous even, which might remind historians of the food riots that affected developing industry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. But this isn’t representative of the vale, where the Quaker Iron Masters saw very small-scale protests, possibly because of the worker allotments and welfare donations already in place along with the belief in fairness regularly demonstrated by the foundry owners.

Rather this bridge – and the company’s other achievements – were born out of stability, family, permanence. Perhaps the problem is the word revolution, which the Oxford dictionary defines as a “forcible overthrow”. Its origins are only slightly more helpful, developing from an old term to turn which at a push we might dramatize as a cranking up.

The aims of the Darby foundry owners appear broadly to have been to innovate and improve, certainly not to revolt. As their biographer Rachel Labouchereputs in, they wanted “innovations… that would improve conditions for mankind” [i]. They left a huge legacy, which could be symbolised so many ways. Beyond their technological advancements, reading the Darby family diaries reveals so many visitors who go on and further influence many others – like Cadbury, Lloyds, Nash, Darwin, Fry, Cash – and I even wonder whether Prince Charles’ vision of Poundbury (where workers, business and services co-exist) was affected by his many visits and role as Patron of the gorge museums.

These connections – and so many more – make the bridge even more poignant as a symbol. It’s interesting as a work of engineering, it’s important as the world’s first iron bridge, it’s vital as a focus for cash-bringing tourism, it’s heartening as a symbol of continuing industry in the vale. But it’s strongest for me now as a symbol of the Darbys and the way their business, family and faith linked and the way their innovations made iron affordable enough to catapult industrial design all over the world.

They were a bridge between the rural and the industrial, the past and the future. And like all bridges (that aren’t burnt in revolution) they link so we can travel in both directions."

Shifting Worlds: contemporary art and the Birthplace of Industry is a contemporary art programme produced in a partnership between Meadow Arts and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, funded by Arts Council England.

All exhibited work and events take place at Coalbrookdale, the site of three of the ten exciting and varied museums that make up the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. The museums give a fascinating insight into the people, processes and landscape of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the present day.

www.meadowarts.org

www.ironbridge.org.uk

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[1] P.37 Deborah Darby by Rachel Labouchere, William Sessions Ltd, 1993

Hot Work

Faye Claridge continues to blog about her artist's residency for Shifting Worlds at Ironbridge Gorge Museum with Meadow Arts

"Through research and residencies I’m very lucky to visit a wide range of places, but I’m willing to admit the Aga works were a bit of a shock.

Ponderous artists seldom work in places with potentially dangerous air quality, noise levels and lack of natural light.

The Coalbrookdale foundry is a place where hard, heavy, noisy, dirty work takes place. It’s an environment that’s uncommonly stressful on the senses, where workers have to be protected in some areas with breathing apparatus, fireproof suits, visors, ear defenders… you get the picture.

Yet there’s a really strong affection for the place. This is partly due its history as so many generations have worked foundries here from even before Abraham Darby’s arrival in 1709. But it’s also due to the nature of the work itself, described slightly reluctantly by the current manager as “a bit macho”. “It doesn’t suit everyone,” he tells me, possibly as a friendly jibe to the ridiculousness of me turning up for a tour in flip-flops and dress (soon rectified with borrowed overalls and boots).

Debbie (the only female employee at the foundry) describes the sound of the works as “a heartbeat” and says it doesn’t feel right when it’s quieter.

“Everybody hates it when machines are broken or away for repair,” someone else tells me. “The men want to be busy and they like to work hard.” It’s interesting that at the moment there are more job vacancies next-door at the museum than there are in the foundry."

Faye Claridge: Shifting Worlds artist residency, Ironbridge Gorge Museums, June-December 2015

Twitter @fayeclaridge or email info@fayeclaridge.co.uk and on Pinterest

Shifting Worlds: contemporary art and the Birthplace of Industry is a contemporary art programme produced in a partnership between Meadow Arts and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, funded by Arts Council England.

All exhibited work and events take place at Coalbrookdale, the site of three of the ten exciting and varied museums that make up the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. The museums give a fascinating insight into the people, processes and landscape of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the present day.

www.meadowarts.org

www.ironbridge.org.uk

On being “unknown”

Faye Claridge continues to blog about her artist's residency for Shifting Worlds at Ironbridge Gorge Museum with Meadow Arts

"Visitors have been busy suggesting names that could be embroidered (sampler style) onto the portraits I’m planning to make at Dale House. I was excited to find many names for me to collect and then was intrigued to find a comment posted among the nominations. The slip of paper with its simple two sentences spoke powerfully of a respect and passion for the portrayal of early Quakers in Coalbrookdale.

A comment left by a visitor to Dale House

I hope I’m right in taking it as a piece of guidance – please do not trivialise – rather than a criticism – you have trivialised - as hearing visitor fears for the project is a rare and useful thing. I also hope it will become apparent to this visitor and many others that I plan to do precisely the opposite of trivialising. By highlighting the lack of physical portraits I aim to show the inescapable importance of portraiture and, therefore, the strength of the early Coalbrookdale Quakers’ decisions not to be remembered in this way.

In modern language we might say we’re obsessed with appearance but back in 1854 the philosopher Thomas Carlyle was already arguing the search for a portrait in historical research had long been a “primary want”, adding that historians will: “search eagerly for a portrait, for all the reasonable portraits there are, and never rest till he has made out, if possible, what a man’s natural face was like. Often I have found a portrait superior in real instruction to half-a-dozen written biographies…”

By coincidence, just before discovering the visitor comment I found an excerpt from this Carlyle letter in a book of Quaker silhouettes, collected by the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Costume Project as a guide to Quaker clothing. Seeing August Edouart’s silhouettes for the first time I was astonished by their ability to capture personality and movement. The details omitted in the hand-cut method are more than compensated for in his style of grouping families, creating narratives and capturing figures in a point of motion (which light-needy photography at the time could not achieve).

I realise this needs to be a more significant visual reference for me than the oil paintings and early photographs that would be my usual calling place for material. Categorised by the book’s authors as a ‘folk art’ silhouette creation also sits better with the uneasy relationship with (self) representation explored by Quakers. As Anna Cox Brinton wrote: “Friends belonging to the first generation of Quakerism consistently refused to have their portraits drawn or painted. They preferred to be remembered by their deeds, preserved in their journals, in the meeting records or prefixed to early Quaker publications...". Despite all the evidence, context and writings about faith, such is the importance of portraiture that a legend in Coalbrookdale persists that from a certain angle a profile of Abraham Darby III can be seen in the ironwork beneath the iron bridge he created. I love what this reveals about our relationship to the bridge and the characters in its history, but I’m also wary of the unintended disrespect it implies. Although I am certain the myth that he cast a secret portrait of himself is untrue it feels harsh to denounce its believers, who see this modest-living man created a publicity statement of global impact. It was useful, egalitarian and fundraising, but undeniably also a big business promotion and in the Darby’s operations this allows for a minor contradiction as they united business and family, though trying to promote one and remain modest with the other.

In the museum collection at Rosehill House we see a number of portraits that could also confuse visitors being told early Quakers eschewed portraiture, but modesty remains apparent with silhouettes and miniatures evidently created as personal keepsakes rather than as public exhibits communicating status or wealth. The striking exception in the collection is the grand coat of arms (in tapestry and on dinnerware) favoured by Francis Darby (1783-1850), son of the iron bridge creator. This exception – as all exceptions – is exciting of course as it shows the importance and scope of the unexceptional, the very many generations who, as my anonymous visitor put it “chose to be ‘unknown’ physically”. I hope through the residency much more of the unknown can be highlighted, to show the important gaps, the reasons for them and how these fuel myths and characterisations."

Faye Claridge: Industry and the Artist residency, Ironbridge Gorge Museums, June-December 2015

Twitter @fayeclaridge or email info@fayeclaridge.co.uk and on Pinterest

Shifting Worlds: contemporary art and the Birthplace of Industry is a contemporary art programme produced in a partnership between Meadow Arts and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, funded by Arts Council England.

All exhibited work and events take place at Coalbrookdale, the site of three of the ten exciting and varied museums that make up the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. The museums give a fascinating insight into the people, processes and landscape of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the present day.

www.meadowarts.org

www.ironbridge.org.uk

It’s nice to have a face

Faye Claridge blogs about her artist's residency for Shifting Worlds at Ironbridge Gorge Museum with Meadow Arts

"I was reminded earlier about a conversation I had a few weeks ago about how our Abraham Darbys aren’t the only notables without portraits. Visiting the Canaletto exhibition at Compton Verney before it closed, I was lucky enough to have a behind-the-scenes talk with its curator Stephen Parisienne, who pointed out the self-portrait of Canaletto in the show may not be Canaletto at all. “Still,” he said cheerfully. “It’s good to have a face to start the exhibition with.”

Supposed Self-Portrait of Canaletto © National Trust

Indeed it is and this is the point; we want to see people not just hear about them or see evidence of their work. The face is usually the most important piece of evidence we desire when learning – or making judgments – about a person.

Years of arguments over the reliability of historic portraits aren’t just an academic or financial exercise (although we know a portrait of Shakespeare will be a lot more valuable for sale or visitor-attracting if proved authentic). The issue is more fundamentally about how we relate to other human beings and how we gather ‘evidence’ in making decisions. This is why interrupting the view of a face, introducing a mask, a burka or even face paint, has such an impact.

I’m really looking forward to exploring this more through the handful of silhouette portraits of Darby extended family members on display at Rosehill House (next door to Dale House). Using a combination of backlighting, black face paint and disguise tatter coats, visitors will be able to see me obscure, photograph and further obscure some key people in Coalbrookdale’s current and past stories. I’m open to suggestions on who should be photographed, just see me at Dale House, leave me a note or get in touch via twitter @fayeclaridge.

Faye Claridge by Chris Keenan

Faye Claridge: Industry and the Artist residency, Ironbridge Gorge Museums, June-December 2015

Twitter @fayeclaridge or email info@fayeclaridge.co.uk and on Pinterest

Shifting Worlds: contemporary art and the Birthplace of Industry is a contemporary art programme produced in a partnership between Meadow Arts and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, funded by Arts Council England.

All exhibited work and events take place at Coalbrookdale, the site of three of the ten exciting and varied museums that make up the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. The museums give a fascinating insight into the people, processes and landscape of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the present day.

www.meadowarts.org

www.ironbridge.org.uk