Creating experience from archives: Politics in Print

Archives are subject to fashions, says Volkhardt Muller in his journal of the Politics in Print commission for Double Elephant Print Workshop.

“Over centuries it was educated and wealthy people who created the papers trails – and in the process documented a history of their own interests and lives. In contrast poorer people appear as objects of interest. They are written about – mostly in official documents – when they become a matter of public interest,” he says.

There’s something inherently political about information. Who is doing the collecting is as important as what is being collected and the collection parameters are set within a social politcal context. But how to make head of the sea of records?

This is where the artist comes in, and the Double Elephant commissioned Politics in Print exhibition, which is set to make its way throughout Devon, released six artists in the Devon Records Office.

Volkhardt focused on recreating a girl he uncovered in the archives in his Trying to meet Matilda Brimmacombe, piece.

His journal says: “Variations of one phrase keep appearing across six months: ‘Visited Brimmacombe, a young female in solitary confinement.’

“I imagine a rather recalcitrant young woman who was not learning whatever lesson she was  supposed to. The court (quarter) sessions of that period show a 15 year old Matilda Brimmacombe who stole two yards of ribbon and a bonnet from her master Mr Wood at Allhallows (Church), Goldsmith Street, a now demolished chapel on the High Street.

“This was punished with six months of hard labour with periods of solitary confinement administered in a thought-out rhythm across the prison term. My idea of the unruly girl is replaced by questions about Matilda’s character and mindset, her aspirations and the motives driving her actions.”

For Lucy Brett it was Devon’s hundred-plus and more than a dozen lost railway lines that became her inspiration for Politics in Print.

She says: “I focused my research on one particular branch line and the five stations along its route – the 1893 Primrose Line which ran from South Brent to Kingsbridge, with intermediate stations at Avonwick, Gara Bridge and Loddiswell and which closed in 1963.

“The Deposited Plans sent to government in London from 1858 onwards showed intricate geographical surveys, detailed maps and beautiful diagrams of numbered parcels of land that would need to be purchased to construct the line. I read letters such as one from the engineer on the progress of work and hold-ups due to weather and reports to the committee of the Railway Company.

“With these in mind, I then traced the 12.5 mile route of the line and walked as closely as possible along its length. I then produced a small series of prints depicting the railway’s political marking of the Devon landscape – noticing what has disappeared, what remains and what has been replaced.”

Archives can keep secrets, too and Steven Paige‘s work Redact looks at the process of redaction – the blacking out or removing of information from documents to keep sensitive information from being distributed.

In the Devon Records Office Steven looked through the catalogue under the subject title of politics and requested the relevant documents. The method of redaction was then used to reduce or apply a method of obscuration, to eliminate specifics of the facts, but also dislocate the document from its own context. The printing process was then restarted on the newly obscured interrupted surface.

Political conspiracy and intrigue was the focus of Jonathan Velardi‘s Semper Fidelis.

“In no other professional practice does division play such a feverent role within the world of politics,” he says. “With division lies the question of trust and it is with the simple action of loyalty, which has been the crux of many a low and high on the political timeline of Devon’s history, where I have found inspiration for Semper Fidelis. The motto for the City of Exeter since 1660, these Latin words of ‘Always Faithful’, rang like a mantra throughout my research at the Devon Record Office.”

Drawing parallels with modern politics, Jonathan looked to the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820, as well as the 1868 general election, the cider tax and Exeter’s Unitary bid, Johnathan says: “Cuts, divisions and separation are all important strands in Devon’s political tapestry. From it’s division between the constituencies of North Devon and South Devon in 1832 to Exeter’s recent unitary bid from Devon County, ideas for change struggle for a majority when they go against the familiarity of the past.

“There is no doubt these events have shaped Devon’s identity and the journey around this cotton square, if a little rocky and slippery at times, represents this political web through my own narrative of Devon County’s rich and cultural history.”

Catherine Cartwright and Nicci Wonnacott began their investigation by looking at some of the letters held at Devon Records Office by Cristobel Pankhurst which led them to the story of The Three Suffragettes of Clovelly (a fishing village in North Devon), as recorded by Todd Gray in his book Remarkable Women of Devon.

In 1909 three suffragette travelled from London to Clovelly, where Prime Minister Asquith was entertaining friends at Clovelly Court to fight for Votes for Women. That Sunday morning they went to All Saints Church, dressed in the colours of the movement, green, white and purple (still the colours, see International Women’s Day). They sat in the church, waiting for their moment. Asquith’s wife saw them, and guessing them to be suffragettes passed her husband a notes to tell him of the danger lurking. At the end of the service he was whisked away out of a side door of the church. The young women, bundled out of the village, returned by foot that night (from some 10 miles away), and entered the gardens at Clovelly Court leaving ‘Votes for Women’ banners strewn across the flowering bushes in the gardens.

“We were inspired to pay Homage to their action of ‘getting up the nose of Asquith’ by visiting the church in purple, green and white dresses exactly 101 years later on May 23rd. This was not so much a reenactment but an art action to bring the event into the present moment and so remember, celebrate and connect their time with ours. As our slogan we devised the words ‘What about the women? Watch the winds of change’ as a response to the lack of contemporary women’s voices in English politics today, taking also as inspiration the words of the Fawcett Society’s Election 2010 Campaign ‘What about women?’

We worked with filmmaker Emily Keene, to create the short film of our action on 23rd May 2010. Rather than being a documentary, the film is an artwork that seeks to transport the viewer into the enchantment of the day and convey the atmosphere and magic of the action we undertook.”

The Politics in Print exhibition made its first blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance at the X-Centre on Saturday, Sunday, September 4 and 5 and is due to tour around Devon.

Find out more at the Double Elephant blog