I felt a bit like the proverbial kid in a candy store. As I began
wandering around the rooms, the variety of the exhibits hit me hard and fast,
and the possibilities of inspiration seemed to fly through the air.
There were butterflies, artists’ books, tins, paintings,
beetles, crystals, a lion skin, and a letter written in blood. There were posters,
doll’s houses, kaleidoscopes, fossils, shells, birds, and a mummified cat, to
list but a few things.
So many possible starting points to write. The temptation
was to latch onto something, pin it down, produce my own exhibit. But I know
from experience, that’s not the best way to work. It’s better to absorb things,
let them ferment, give them the freedom to develop in weird and wonderful
directions.
One thing that struck me is how the exhibits resonate off
each other, like words do in a poem. If
you stick two words near each other in a poem, unseen connections are created
between them, a certain tension, they bring out different connotations in each
other. It’s a technique that many poets will use. And this was present in the
collections in the Beaney. One room has the exhibits organised by colour, which
means you can see an agate ornament, a piece of jasper and a muskrat in close
proximity, or butterflies, beetles and crystals side by side. It’s a really
fascinating way of looking at things, and reminded me how the context of
objects (or words) can completely change how we see them.
I’m also fascinated by people, I love to sit and people watch,
and I think watching them as they look around the exhibits is interesting. I sat
in the Study and did this for a while. Looking through glass cases into the other
room meant the people staring into those glass cases appeared to be exhibits
themselves.
I heard one very small girl point at the lion skin and say
to her carer when I was little, I was
scared of that, but I’m not any more. Then a bit later that used to be alive, but it’s dead now. Why is it dead? This
question was fielded nicely by her adult saying that’s a question for another day, here look at this.
I feel the place is bubbling over with potential at the
moment, and I can’t wait to see where it leads me.
Oh… and even after spending ages wandering around, I still couldn't find the actual ‘Armchair’.
