Museum of Now brings together diverse Torquay residents to co-create objects inspired by the collections at Torquay Museum and their own responses to contemporary local and global issues.
‘Makers of artefacts have been ‘responding’ to objects made by earlier generations since the beginning of craft. I think of the history of culture as an infinitely complex game of ‘Chinese whispers’, where images and ideas are changed by passing through the hands of various craftsmen. Filtering them through a series of personal experiences, each idea becomes something new, not necessarily because of some revolutionary inspiration but because creativity is often a series of innocent mistakes’. – Grayson Perry in the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman
Making is something we used to do quite a lot of, but now our hands are more used to texting and Googling. There’s nothing wrong with that in particular but do we miss traditional activities today that actually create a physical, real end product?
It was something that used to unite us in a group if we were making a communal thing like rope or a tapestry, or if alone it might entertain or give us purpose, especially if we were a Victorian ‘lady’ who wasn’t supposed to do much else.
After several workshops during the past few weeks with all types of people in Torquay, it seems that most people are naturally interested and intuitively creative in the process of making ‘stuff’. The resulting collection of artefacts are wildly different but all highly interesting and to many, strangely beautiful. A few of these objects might find themselves alongside ancient artefacts at Torquay Museum later on in the year, when the ‘Britain’s First Human’ show is coming to town (12th September to 12th December).
Some of the attendees started workshops by saying they were neither good at or interested much in making. What is fascinating to me is that my fundamental belief we are all creative and ingenious has been completely reinforced throughout workshops and in the big make day and the Spanish Barn. Flying dinosaurs made from seaweed, necklaces made from toothpicks, headdresses made from old rope and shells, collections of clay animals – every age, combination of maker, group and individual seemed to find their inner craftsperson.
For more information visit http://www.encounters-arts.org.uk/index.php/museum-of-now/