Claudia Sacher
Exhibiting from Saturday, 9th July 2011
Title of artwork: Chamber of the Heart
Location: South terrace of the house (outside)
See Claudia Sacher’s website
Chamber of the Heart is a poetic artwork involving text, objects and images inspired by William Bell Scott’s mural ‘The Descent of the Danes’ (Central Hall). This mural depicts Danish Vikings landing on a beach near Tynemouth Priory. Looking at this terrifying scene, the contemporary viewer is arrested by a sense of vertigo (we watch the invasion from the top of a very high cliff) as well as emotionally moved by the plight of those fleeing the invaders (for example, one wonders about the fate of the tiny child in the foreground). The viewer’s experience is reinforced by the anxiety on the face of the woman with a headscarf seen in profile against the misty morning sky (Pauline, Lady Trevelyan painted with her pet dog at her feet). Claudia Sacher’s artwork responds to this scene with an intuitive mixture of theatre-like spectacle and written narrative. She explores the psychological implications of the picture Bell Scott painted.
First thoughts (May 2011)
Ideas from Bell Scott’s paintings: in ‘The Descent of the Danes’, an initial interest in the image of a little boy is holding a wooden toy in his hand. The toy is made out of a wooden cross, attached to a wooden stick, which turns when the wind blows. At the end of the sticks, which are held together to form the cross, two flags of orange and blue are attached. The toy functions like a windmill. Later, a possible piece, entitled ‘Chamber of the Heart’, came to mind looking at the figure of a woman (Pauline Trevelyan) with her dogs in the same painting. This idea involves a figurative drawing positioned over the south entrance doorway (facing outwards) with a poetic narrative text (in German and English) that can be read through the window from inside the building. A performance piece on the steps before the door is also possible.
Ideas from Bell Scott’s paintings: in ‘The Descent of the Danes’, an initial interest in the image of a little boy is holding a wooden toy in his hand. The toy is made out of a wooden cross, attached to a wooden stick, which turns when the wind blows. At the end of the sticks, which are held together to form the cross, two flags of orange and blue are attached. The toy functions like a windmill. Later, a possible piece, entitled ‘Chamber of the Heart’, came to mind looking at the figure of a woman (Pauline Trevelyan) with her dogs in the same painting. This idea involves a figurative drawing positioned over the south entrance doorway (facing outwards) with a poetic narrative text (in German and English) that can be read through the window from inside the building. A performance piece on the steps before the door is also possible.
