Sally Pattrick - Questions & Answers
Click on each question below to view Sally's response.
1. Have you worked with museum objects before? more »During my final year of study I created a collection of jewellery, automata and prints inspired by many hours spent in the National Museum of Scotland, studying the Natural History specimens and their collection of scientific instruments. I presented this work in old entomology cases borrowed from the Museum.
2. How did you go about choosing the objects to work with? more »I have tried to represent the nature of each museum through the objects I chose - as representations of the collections as a whole but also those that are relevant to my practice. The textures of archaeology specimens, which make up a large part of St Andrews' collection, lend themselves well to translation into mixed media, whilst the sentimental jewellery from Dunfermline's costume archive is fascinating for its symbolism and construction. It was harder to choose from Kirkcaldy's vast and varied collection, so I selected a range of images from the exhibits on show that interested me and translated them through ideas inspired by the linoleum industry display.
3. What attracted you to the objects you chose? more »For my brief I had a huge range of specimens to choose from - across three museums - and whilst the objects I decided upon for each collection appear very different, it was the way they had all been treated in the museum environment that interested me. All have been catalogued, labelled, numbered and ultimately detached from their original surrounding - whether they are the rough, functional spindle whorls packed away in St Andrews or the decorative duelling pistols on display at Kirkcaldy. The display boxes were designed to correspond to the accessibility of each museum's collection with regards to how much was on display or in storage, away from the public's view. This hidden side of the museum fascinates me and I wanted , in part, to give some insight into this through my piece. This is represented through the boxes' forms - enclosed for Dunfermline's absent museum, multiple images for Kirkcaldy's vast and varied displays, and finally, St Andrews' smaller, select collection on show is interpreted behind glass, and also through the images behind the pieces.
4. How did you research the objects further? more »See answer to Question 3.
5. Did you think about who originally made/used the object? more »All the objects I have chosen were related to people's lives, whether it be to the individual home or a community's central means of employment. This was particularly significant for the sentimental jewellery in the Dunfermline collection, which had once been so personal to the wearer and was often designed to remember someone by. Now it is catalogued away from view with little or no information about who left it or what value it held to the owner.
6. How did you decide what to make? more »Once I had decided upon the objects, I developed my responses to them through design work in my sketchbook and later 3D samples that I have presented as a record of this process in the exhibition. I work in a range of media which I applied depending on the starting point I was working from.
7. How did you make it? more »Much of my work is based on jewellery techniques for metal working. This includes casting, etching and chasing. I mixed these with other media such as paper, fabric and wax to give a variety of textures and effects to interpret the range of specimens I was working from.
8. What do you plan / want to do next? more »This project has given me a great opportunity to develop my own work and the direction in which it is heading. I hope to apply to other museum research based projects and explore the installation side of my work - making the complete environment for pieces to be contained in.
