Surplus to Requirements
In collaboration with Sarah Jane Lawton living in rural France, I created 'Tincture for a Thunderstorm'. I analysed areas within past relationships that had been described as traits lacking in my character. I made a list and sent it to Sarah, my unofficial herbalist. She researched and gathered the medicinal herbal ingredients from the Provencal countryside, dried and posted them to England. I fused the herbs to create 20 sachets of remedies, to be taken with hot water in order to make me more 'girlfriend-able'. I hot foil blocked the remedy on accompanying card to form my part of the collaboration.
The artists of 'M Collective' conducted research at the Manchester Herbarium, guided by head botanist Leander Wolfensholm. A unique, insightfull and vast Victorian collection of plant specimens are housed in the large attic laboratory of the Manchester Museum. The collection is stunning but much underused and under accessed by scientists and scholars. The M Collective , (Manchester School of Art lecturers and alumni), were invited to respond to the Herbarium collection in an edition of 20 works to fit within the dimensions of re-appropriated specimen glass-fronted boxes.
Surplus to Requirements publication
Surplus to Requirements is s collaborative publication with M Collective - Lucy May Schofield, Nick Fleming, Elizabeth Machin, Tony Eve, Joan Beadle, Hilary Judd, Sylvia Waltering, Jacqueline Butler and the Centre for Fine Print Research staff at UWE, Bristol - Sarah Bodman, Tom Sowden, Paul Laider, Guy Begbie, Andrew Eason, Helen Allesbrook, teri Makassih, Angie Butler, Natalie McGrorty.
Both collectives of artists were invited to respond to the theme of 'Surplus to Requirements'. The artists produced a creative response to two diverse collections in their respective cities. The Bookbarn in Bristol and the Herbarium at Manchester Museum, prompting questions that such collections may raise about the past and propose for the future. An offset-litho printed edition of 250 books were printed and bound by M Collective, 190 x 220mm, 2010.