The installation, Crafting the landscape: the journey of a piece of KSIA, was co-created by Joe Rattray, Sreeni Darigala, Sylvia Darigala, and Zoe Mander, and facilitated by the fantastic museum team.
Transcript: Crafting the landscape: the journey of a piece of KSIA
Follow the journey of a piece of Keswick School of Industrial Arts metalware. We start from the mossy hills where the mines are, and touch lumps of raw copper. Then onto the station of the workers hammering, creating the plates – have a go hammering so you know what hard work it is. Then touch the finished product so you can feel what the texture is like.
The mines are up on the fells, where you’d fine the sphagnum type of moss. It’s wet and peaty. If you stand on it, it squidges, it’s spongy, your feet squelch in it, you’d get wet feet if it’s had a good watering. You can sink into it. It’s more of a grassy texture as it grows like grass, upwards. Some look really spiky, but it can be very soft and delicate to the touch. We compared it to the Merino wool of the plant world, nice to touch.
The KSIA plate is made of brass, which is copper and zinc. You think of copper as having more reddish tones, much browner. Copper is softer than brass.
In the KSIA workshop there would have been lots of different sounds, including repetitive tapping, like tapping your nail on a table, when workers were hammering the raised designs.
This object is like a very big plate or platter. It’s a yellowy gold colour with some darker patches – a bright raised surface and a dark background. It reminded us of embossing. Workers hammered designs into the back, creating a raised design on the front – this technique is called repoussé. We thought it was more like a prize in a competition than something you eat off.
The pattern is like vines on long stems curling round, creating flower buds. We thought one flower looked like a sliced-open pepper, showing seeds at the centre. This is a pomegranate. The central flower looks a bit like the Yorkshire Rose, with the little pointed leaves in between the petals.
We found it very pleasing to tap it on the back. We thought it sounded like the cinema gong at the start of 20th century films, or a dinner gong. It has a slight reverb when you hold it up so it has a vibrant sound.
The smell lingered on our hands – a metallic-y, chemically smell. It reminded us of cleaning, particularly being at an older relative’s house and having to clean platters, horse brasses, fire gates. How many hours lost for it only to dull down and be repeated mercilessly. It reminded us of when you finish cleaning the brass, even though you’ve washed your hands you still can’t get rid of the smell of Brasso for a while.
Intervention Design and Project Management: Barker Langham
Build: Reeves and Bond
Scent Development/Consultation: AVM Curiosities