Purple Poets Art for All | Access for All
community projects
VENUE TWO: THE WELLCOME TRUST COLLECTION
please note: all photo credits courtesy the Wellcome Trust
video courtesy Jo WOnder
Poetry-In-Progress
- inspired by Wellcome Trust Artists, Exhibitions and Events
FEATURED: Wellcome project 3 Six Days Good-bye Poems to Ophelia - film and bacterial project by Wellcome Trust artist Jo WOnder
Day Four with poems, including Ophelia, This is Your Mother by Purple Poet Bithi Das
and Ophelia (the person you are calling) by Kim Morrissey
first shown at the Purple Poets' Camden Heroes
National Poetry Day Celebration
Camden Town Hall, October 8th 2009
Other credits for the bacteria Ophelia project:
Wellcome Artist, Jo WOnder, (www.jowonder.com), in collaboration
with Dr. Simon Park.
Dr Simon Park is a senior lecturer at the University of Surrey, where he
teaches Bacteriology and Molecular Biology. As an internationally recognized
molecular bacteriologist, he has published over 60 papers in international
refereed journals, books and other periodicals. His wider activities and
practice are driven by the common misconception that microbiological life
is primitive and always detrimental, and that, through collaborations
with artists, the real nature of the microbiological world can be revealed.
In this context, he has been widely involved in many collaborative projects
with artists; Wellcome Trust-funded collaborations include Six Days of
Goodbye Poems of Ophelia with Jo WOnder.
Composer Milton Mermikides produced the music that underlies the piece
from the genetic code of bacteria that colonize the gut. The film will be
featured in 'Ophelia:2010' a conference arranged by art historian and academic
Ayla Lepine at the courtauld Art gallery, in 2010.
PROJECT 4 [2.4] 2nd Annual
Midsummer Collection Picnic
June 26, 2010 Cumberland Maket, noon to four p.m.
Co-produced by the Wellcome Trust, West Euston Workshop and The Third Age
Project.
12:30 at the Poetry Tree Snakes and Ladders:
poems on favourite objects
in the Wellcome Collection
- a 5 minute reading of postcard poems for The Mayor
of Camden
at the launch of the Poetry Tree by the Purple Poets
at the 2nd Annual Collection Picnic,
Cumberland Market, June 26, 2010
(this is an on-going project).
PICNIC PROJECT 1: Snakes and Ladders
(resource people: Eleanor Lanyon and Dr. Nikolai Serikiff, Wellcome
Library)
29.04. 2010 first visit and poetry workshop at
the Wellcome Collection visit:1. Thursday 29th April, 2010 . Bithi Das, Shelagh
Beale, Patsy Futatsugi, Islam Molla and Kim Morrissey visit the permanent
Collection (using the guidance notes of Eleanor Lanyon). This visit included
seeing Bernal's Picasso drawing, hacked from Bernal's wall, Jeremy
Bentham's Preserved Skin, King George lll's hair, a non-working chastity
belt (missing key). Although there was not time to view the 18th century
Snakes and Ladder board, Wellcome Trust Librarian (and 2010 picnic organiser)
Eleanor Lanyon provided an English translation of the squares. The Purple
Poets revisited the Frederick Cayley Robinson paintings The Acts
of Mercy, and Patsy started planning haikus inspired by the purple
jellybelly baby - 'Jelly Baby 3', (chemical cloning, 2004) by the British
artist Mauro Perucchetti.
Mauro Perucceti Jelly Baby 3
(2004).
FROM THE WELLCOME COLLECTION CATALOGUE
Perucchetti works in polyurethane, a notoriously difficult resin
made of many small, unstable urethane molecules in long chains.
He creates works which are water-clear, strong and last forever.
On one level, this work uses the jelly baby as a metaphor for
cloned humans, which are identical to one another yet potentially
not like other humans. On another level, it speaks to our increasing
tendency to see human beings as chemical assemblages that
temporarily stabilise the bases of DNA into long durable
and comprehensible chains for the duration of our
lives. MEDICINE MAN
COLLECTION,
first floor
PATSY FUTATSUGI
Purple Plastic Joy Forever: 'Jelly Baby 3' (chemical cloning, 2004)
by the British artist Mauro Perucchetti.
The Purple Jelly Baby
glows; happy, happy, happy,
jelly belly joy.
Patsy Futatsugi,Purple Poets (read at the launch of The Poetry Tree June
26, 2010 at the 2nd Annual Cumberland Market Midsummer Picnic; first draft
24.06.2010. Image courtesy Wellcome Collection.)
visit 2. Thursday, June17 to the SKIN exhibition: Jean Watt, Patsy
Futatsugi, Bithi Das, Shelagh Beale and Kim Morrissey. Scarring, writing
on the skin,the artist, the baker's and the housewife's hands were
discussed (and also, the temporary tattoos of Wellcome artist Lady Lucy from
the 2009 Midsummer Picnic, as Lady Lucy will also be tatttoing people at
the 2010 picnic) 2009
Lady Lucy tatto: http://www.beingll.com/wordpress/?p=444
visit 3. Monday, June 21, 2010 to the rare manuscripts
library, to chat with Dr. Serikoff to view the Sanskrit Snakes &
Ladders Board
.Wellcome Indic Sanskrit
MS 276. (Image
no.L35004): Bithi
Das and Kim Morrissey
Jnana Bagi (The Game of Heaven
and Hell).
Snakes and ladders was invented in India to teach
the virtues of the Jain religion.This late 18th century Snakes and ladders board is about 18 inches square,
divided into eight rows and nine columns, its ladders
in the traditional Jain colours of red and yellow.
The longest ladder reaches from square 17
Compassionate Love to 69 The World of the
Absolute. Courtesy of the Wellcome Library.
Sanskrit, c.18th century.
Wellcome Indic Sanskrit MS 276. (Image no.L35004).
BITHI DAS
Forgetting Janan Bagi
(The Game of Heaven and Hell)
'Snakes and Ladders'
Wellcome Indic Sanskrit MS 276,18th Century
It was my childhood game
lots of screaming and crying!
Me and my brother and cousins, who wins or who loses.
I know the game but I cannot read the board.
It is in Sansrit, which I studied sixty years ago.
This square, 68, is the Heaven, Nirvana.
And this mouth of the snake is Seduction
leading back down to square 2 - Mada. Desire.
Heaven. Nirvana. Seduction. Desire. That is all
I remember of this very spiritual game. Snake and Ladder.
My teacher would be so
disappointed.
Bithi Das, Purple Poets (read at the launch of The Poetry Tree June 26, 2010
at the 2nd Annual Cumberland Market Midsummer Picnic; first draft 18.06.2010.
Image courtesy Wellcome Library.
PICNIC PROJECT 1: Creating a Communal Snakes and Ladders
Board
(a communal project with West Euston Workshop members
and Wellcome Collection artists: Prick Your Finger)
This reading may also include poem on the bacterial felting project
of 2010 Wellcome guest artists Prick Your Finger, who will be
working
with West Euston Workshop members and The Homework Club
to knit, dye, sew, glue, embroider, and felt to create squares based on bacterial
images
for a gigantic uesable art board of 'Snakes and Ladders.'
(The Purple Poets Square on the Board, decorated by the Purple Poets: Square
59).
Other board game versions varied, in their number of squares,
from the first circular British snakes and ladders in the
British
Museum
to the more conventional 10 x10 squares. The moral lessons were quickly
discarded
when the game was introduced to Britain. Games of Childhood (poems by the Purple Poets)
THE STORY OF SQUARE 59. There are 72 squares and each has a story.
The board was designed by the artist collective Prick Your Fingers (Rachel
Mathews and Louise ). Designs of bacteria were the pattern of the background,
with 72 numbered squares to make up a giant board. As well as the board,
there was also a gigantic dice, and some beautiful Snakes and Ladders,
to make a giant playable board. . About the participants. Everyone from the
Third Age Project's Sewing Class, Crafts Class, Cooking Class, as well as
the West Euston Workshop's Homework Club and the children's street
dancers were asked to take part (the needles provided were suitably blunt!).
People could do a square themselves, or work on squares with other people.
et inexperienced people take part (and people with visual disabilities and
physical disabilities) people could paint, or glue as well as embroider.
Instructions for sthree simple stiches (cross stitch, chain stitch and french
knot) were included in the packet with the square. The squares each had a
number on .(The Purple Poets' Square 59 was one of four left-over after
everyone had chosen their squares (3 beige squares and our purple one).
SQUANumber 59, in the Wellcome Collection is the Square directly below heaven.
Unfortunately, because we just decided to embroider it on a whim, our own
bit of heaven, Purple Poet Ferdous Rahman, who has embroidered squares with
her poetry as part of earlier project in Tooting, wasn't here to help (The
name Ferdous means The 7th Circle of Heaven). The good news was that we still
had our wonderful Bithi Das to show us how to do the stitches (Bithi is helping
to complete the
Tomorrow, Saturday, you are all invited picnic with us, the Welcome Collection,
and the community of Euston. We will unveil our giant snakes and ladders
board, which looks shamazing.
Didn't they do a good job with our sarnies on this poster?
The picnic is in Cumberland Market, Euston from 12-4pm. It's not far from
Regents Park.
Remember the sun tan lotion, it's going to be very hot.
See you there!
http://prickyourfinger.blogspot.com/
Rachel Mathews and Louise Harries met at Central Saint Martins College.Louise
is from Wales and Rachel is from the Lake District. Together, they run Prick
your Finger, a modern haberdashery shop at 60 Globe Road, Bethnal Green.
PICNIC PROJECT 3. The West Euston Workshop Community Cook (a communal project with West Euston Workshop members and Wellcome Artist
Lucy May Schofield)The Purple Poets contributed their recipes and
memories and poems, with other Workshop members, for a limited edition hand-made
book created for the Picnic by artist Lucy May Schofield.
www.lucymayschofield.co.uk
www.lucymayschofield.blogspot.com
The Wellcome Collection Midsummer Picnic is back for 2010 on Saturday 26
June. Taking place in Cumberland Market, this free community event invites
local residents to celebrate the summer with activities and performances
inspired by Henry Wellcome and his collection.
Midsummer Picnic
Sunday 26 June,12.00-16.00
Cumberland Market
Camden, London, NW1 (Google map)
FREE EVENT
"After the success of last year's Midsummer Picnic, we're delighted to be
hosting the event again. This year there will be even more fun activities
to enjoy and we hope this will inspire people to come and explore Sir Henry's
wonderful collection for themselves," said Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes
at Wellcome Collection.
There will be games for children and grown-ups alike, including a giant Snakes
and Ladders board knitted by ethical art knitters Prick Your Finger.
The Mayor of Camden will lead a dedication of the Poetry Tree Reading Space
in Cumberland Market, while the Purple Poets will read poems inspired by
objects from the Wellcome Collection permanent galleries and the recently
opened ‘Skin’ exhibition.
Artist Lucy May Schofield will unveil copies of her handmade recipe book,
inspired by historical recipes from the Wellcome Library and including
contributions of treasured recipes from the local community.
Music will be provided by 'Radio Picnic' - a bicycle powered jukebox featuring
all your favourite tunes. People will be invited to bring their own music
to play or they can dedicate a track from the extensive collection.
There will also be performances throughout the day from local street dancers,
Third Age English Country Dancing group, and West Euston Workshop Line Dancing
group.
Visitors are invited to bring food to eat and share, with plenty of opportunities
throughout the day to earn food and other goodies.
This event is co-produced by the Wellcome Trust and West Euston Workshop
with contributions from the Third Age Project and artists' projects curated
by General Public Agency.
ISLAM MOLLA
Cooking 'Jelly Baby 3' (chemical cloning, 2004)
by the British artist Mauro Perucchetti.
Sometimes
I cook chicken but
it is not very tasty
I cut it into pieces
or get the butcher to cut it
and then put oil
onion, ginger, chilies
garlic is a must
all those good things put together
The only thing is:
I take it out and it is dismal
I am hopeless
I cook only for survival:
boiled egg.
boiled rice.
boiled egg.
West Euston Workshop Purple Poets (read at the launch of The Poetry Tree
June 26, 2010 at the 2nd Annual Cumberland Market Midsummer Picnic; first
draft 24.06.2010. Image courtesy Wellcome Collection.)
PICNIC PROJECT 4. Radio PicNic
DJ
(a communal project with West Euston Workshop members
and Wellcome Artist Lisa Cheung,
www.lisacheung.com). Artist
Lisa Cheung will be bringing her Radio PicNic art installation to be our
picnic's bicycle dj (the more you pedal, the more of the song you hear).
She has been interviewing West Euston Workshop members (including
Purple Poets) about their favourite music, and the memories, to create a
site-specific musical and emotional community audio canvas.
PICNIC PROJECT 5. Lady Lucy Wellcome Collection
Tattoos
(Wellcome Artist Lady Lucy). Poems inspired by the Skin Exhibition
and Lady Lucy's Tattoos from Picnic 2009 and Picnic 2010.
03.06.2010 - update on Midsummer Collection Picnic Community
projects
Second Annual Midsummer Collection Picnic
Saturday 26 June, 12.00-17.00 is the Second Annual Cumberland Market Wellcome
Trust Collection Picnic. PURPLE POETS' READING 12:30 at Poetry
Tree. This annual community festival is co-produced by the Wellcome Trust,
West Euston Workshop and the Third Age Project. The Picnic features artists
and projects from the Wellcome Trust and the West Euston Cumberland Market
community.
Artist information - Purple Poets
The West Euston Workshop Purple Poets (www.purplepoets.com) have been delighting
audiences since they were founded in 2005. They hosted the Camden celebrations
for the 2009 National Poetry Day celebrations in the Camden Town Hall, and
will be hosting the this year's celebrations on October 8, 2010 (with the
Mayor of Camden, Councillor Jonathan Simpson). The Purple Poets' most recent
work includes their 'Purple Poets and Peace' found poetry project (poetry
based on historical Friends' Peace Testimonies) co-produced with the Quaker
Centre on April 22, 2010. They will be reading from this work at Hiroshima
Day, Tavistock Square on August 6, 2010.
The First Annual Collection Picnic, June 20, 2009
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/midsummer-picnic.aspx
In the film of the first annual Collection Picnic, you can see Purple Poet
Patsy Futatsugi reading her delicious poem about chocolate to the 2009 Mayor
of Camden. 2009 Inter-active Project: The Purple Poets' Poet Tree. To
celebrate the 'Collection' theme of the Picnic, The Purple Poets collected
words from people at the Picnic. Each person wrote their favourite word on
a pink/purple sticky paper heart, which became a 'leaf' of the tree. These
leaves formed the tree, and the concrete poem created a text map reflecting
the community's moods and languages on the day. (People in the film who are
wearing pink/purple hearts are some of the participants who took part;
co-facilitators: Third Age Project co-ordinator Urmi Alim, Greenlight Pharmacy's
H-Pod co-ordinator Josie Nakos, and Wellcome Collection's Lisa Jamieson).
The Second Annual Collection Picnic June 26, 2010
This year, following on from the metaphorical Poet Tree inter-ctive game
from lst picnic, the Purple Poets will be launching their real poetry Tree
reader space in Cumberland Market, by reading to the Mayor of Camden at the
Poetry Tree at 12:30. The Purple Poets will be reading their Postcard Poems
inspired by objects in the Wellcome Permanent collection (this is an on-going
project, and although not all the poems will be read, there may be poems
from the Wellcome exhibition 'Skin' as well as poems inspired by this year's
guest Wellcome Trust Picnic Artists' Projects: food poems from Lucy May
Schofield's hand-made book of West Euston Workshop recipes, poems inspired
by Prick Your Fingers' community knitting project Snakes and Ladders, and
memory poems of music inspired by Lisa Cheung's Radio PicNic DJ interviews,
perhaps a tatto poem inspired by Lady Lucy. For their inter-active
project, the Purple Poets will be creating and playing their own Rhymes
with Purple! Rhymes with Orange! (Adders and Ladders) poetry game
with passers-by of all ages, as well as launching The Poetry Tree Reading
Space in Cumberland Market (bring your favourite poem on a postcard, and
come read - look for the Poetry Tree purple bench in the Park).
Wellcome Links: Purple Poets Arts and Science Projects
Poetry takes time. Since 2005, The Purple Poets have been involved in several
collaborative projects combining both arts and science, all of which are
on-going.
Purple Poets and Wellcome Artists
As well as suggesting the 'snakes and ladders' theme (instead of chess) to
Prick Your Fingers, the Purple Poets contributed recipes and poems to Lucy
May Schofield's limited edition Picnic book (both projects, 2010). The Purple
Poets' 2009 National Poetry Day Celebrations included two artists who have
been supported by Wellcome Trust in the past. Heather Spears generously donated
sketches of Camden Writers for our Town Hall Camden Heroes display, and Jo
WOnder presented the first screening of her Day Four Bacterial Ophelia project,
(www.purplepoets.com/wellcome.html). For the first stage, Jo collaborated
with Dr. Simon Park, painting the Millais image of 'Ophelia' in bacteria
and then filmed the bacterial changes over forty days and commissioned original
music. For the second stage, she gave a free workshop on the images, and
invited poets to leave their poems on the answering machine, inspired by
the images and addressed to Ophelia.
The film Jo screened for us at the 2009 National Poetry Day Celebrations
will be featured later this year at a Courtauld Art Gallery conference on
'Images of Ophelia' organised by art historian Ayla Lepine. Poems in the
film include West Euston Workshop writer-in-residence Kim Morrissey's 'Ophelia.'
and Purple Poet Bithi Das's wonderful poem 'Ophelia, This Is Your Mother'
which ends …
… you can never understand
the secret of love
until you are old
Purple Poets, Art and Perceptions of Disability
The Purple Poets' 2007 (and on-going) internet project Arts For All? Access
For All (resource person: Councillor Roger Robinson) continues to raise public
sensitivity to disability access in residential and performing spaces.
Through talks with Dr. Paul Nandi, they have started to explore poetic
descriptions of chronic pain, and will creating found poetry from the
papers of Dr. Natasha Curran (Pain Management Centre, National Hospital
for Neurology and Neurosurgery) as well as poems inspired by images created
by Prof Joanna Zakrzewska's artist-in-residence Deborah
Padfield.(UCLH), for their project to write poems for
the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery's
150 anniversary celebrations.
For people who are also interested in functional imaging of the brain and
poetry; if you have access to equipment and would like volunteers, please
contact the West Euston Workshop.
To find out more about the work of the Purple Poets and the West Euston Time
Bank, please go to www.purplepoets.com
Kim Morrissey,
Writer-in-residence,
West Euston Workshop
http://www.purplepoets.com
03.06.2010
PROJECT 3
[2.3]
www.jowonder.com Six Days Good-bye Poems to
Ophelia
Day Four with poems, including Ophelia, This is Your Mother by Purple Poet Bithi Das
and Ophelia (the person you are calling) by Kim Morrissey
- film and bacterial project by Wellcome Trust artist JoWOnder
first shown at the Purple Poets' Camden
Heroes
National Poetry Day Celebration
Camden Town Hall
October 8th 2009
Community Neighbouring Project 2 [2.2] Annual Midsummer Cumberland Market Community Picnic
hosted by Wellcome Trust, The West Euston Workshop, Third Age Project
FIRST ANNUAL PICNIC Saturday 20 JUNE 2009
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/midsummer-picnic.aspx
Taking place in Cumberland Market (NW1), near to Wellcome Collection, this
was an event for local people to discover personal collections on stalls
designed by artist duo Juneau Projects and inspired by Henry Wellcome and
his collection. There were activities for adults and children throughout
the afternoon, and visitors were invited to bring food to eat and share at
this traditional summer picnic. Watch the video for highlights from the event
including a tattoo inspired by a Wellcome Library recipe book, seed planting,
instrument making, [Purple Poet Patsy Futtsugi reading to the 2009
Mayor of Camden], and Lady Lucy's portrait stand. (Running time: 7 min 48
s)
This event was produced by General Public Agency.
Presented in association with West Euston Workshop. up-coming picnic: June 26, 2010 Cumberland
Market
reading to the 2010 Mayor of Camden, Councillor Jonathan Simpson
12:30 at the Poetry Tree
Never knew it before.
Not an ordinary place
But it came into my mind
To witness the paintings
By F. Cayley Robinson
Called Acts of Mercy
Paintings about Doctors
And Orphans
From the Middlesex Hospital.
The significant paintings
Of insignificant people
Given dignity.
Every detail was so vivid
As if you are standing around them.
Everywhere the sadness.
The little children and their matrons.
Every face had eternal sorrow.
Childhood lost forever in this vast world.
That sorrow said to me never-ending suffering.
I came out with my body and heart
Over-spilling with sadness.
West Euston Workshop Purple Poets (launch of Acts of Mercy 01.04.2009; re-written
at the Wellcome Trust Library 02.04.2009)
and not really take notice - I've seen the
paintings
the Acts of Mercy but not taken them in
because I've always been in a rush seeing friends and
my father in hospital
But today, at the Wellcome Trust Library,
I saw the Acts of Mercy for the first time.
They were so beautiful
Full of passion
And sorrow
And I wish
I had seen them
Sooner.
West Euston Workshop Purple Poets
Written at the Wellcome Trust Library
02.04.2009
PURPLE POETS PROJECT 2.2
annual Cumberland Market Festival
Midsummer Collection Picnic
Saturday 20 June, 2009 12.00-17.00
co-produced with the Wellcome Trust, West Euston Workshop
and the Third Age Project.
first Annual Midsummer Collection
Picnic
Saturday 20 June, 12.00-17.00
Calling all collectors to join our Midsummer Picnic! Taking place in Cumberland
Market,
near to Wellcome Collection, this is an event for the local community at
which
local residents will display their collections on stalls designed by artist
duo Juneau Projects
and inspired by Henry Wellcome and his collection. There will be activities
for adults and
children throughout the afternoon, and visitors are invited to bring food
to eat and share.
The event will be a traditional summer picnic, with a dash of
'Antiques Roadshow' and the Pitt Rivers Museum thrown in for good luck.
This event is produced by General Public Agency.
source:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2009/WTX054165.htm
Artist Lady Lucy commissioned by the Wellcome Trust to design a temporary
Tattoo
for Wellcome Trust Midsummer picnic through General Public Agency.
http://www.generalpublicagency.com/
Video of the picnic:
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/midsummer-picnic.aspx
old site: http://www.wellcomecollection.org/press/2009/WTX054166.htm
Urmi Alim:
Workshoping is not about money. You bank your time.
You spend an hour helping people, and in return you get a credit,
and with that you can receive help in return. So there’s no money
involved....
You give time to the community
and the community gives you something back in return.
[in the Wellcome Film of the 2009 Cumberland Market Midsummer
Picnic]
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/midsummer-picnic.aspx
"Milky, syrupy sweet,
smearing on the hands and face of a five-year-old,
melting in my mouth."
Purple Poet Patsy Futatsugi reading 'After the War'
her wonderful poem about Chocolate
to the Mayor of Camden,
Councillor Omar Faruque Ansari,
Cumberland Square Collections Picnic
June 20th, 2009
photograph courtesy Wellcome Trust [in the Wellcome Film of the 2009 Cumberland Market Midsummer
Picnic]
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/midsummer-picnic.aspx
transcript of 2009 Wellcome Picnic Film PDF - introduction
by General Public Agency
Midsummer Picnic. On Saturday 20 June 2009,
Wellcome Collection organised a Midsummer Picnic [with the West Euston Time
Bank]
in Cumberland Market, London NW1. Phil Duckworth and Ben Sadler (artistic
duo
Juneau Projects) designed the overall concept. They, along with
Wellcome
Collection’s Lisa Jamieson, West Euston Workshop’s Urmi Alim,
participating artist
‘Lady Lucy’ and many of the local people who came along, give
their views.
SECOND Annual "Collection Picnic"
co-hosted by the West Euston Workshop,
Wellcome Trust and Third Age Project
(held at the H-Pod and Cumberland Market)
Saturday 26 June, 2010, 12.00-17.00
Purple Poets Poetry Tree
'Collecting Heroes'
found poetry workshops to continue
gathering the memories and names of local heroes Camden Heroes Postcard Poems
a reading of poems about objects
in the Wellcome Permanent Collection
First Annual "Collection Picnic"
co-hosted by the West Euston Workshop,
Wellcome Trust and Third Age Project
(held at the H-Pod and Cumberland Market)
Saturday 20 June, 2009, 12.00-17.00
Purple Poets Poetry Tree
'Collecting Words'
gathering favourite words to make
the leaves of a poetry tree
2009 press release, Wellcome Trust.
Calling all collectors to join our Midsummer Picnic! Taking place in Cumberland
Market, near to Wellcome Collection, this is an event for the local community
at which local residents will display their collections on stalls designed
by artist duo Juneau Projects and inspired by Henry Wellcome and his collection.
There will be activities for adults and children throughout the afternoon,
and visitors are invited to bring food to eat and share.
The event will be a traditional summer picnic, with a dash of 'Antiques Roadshow'
and the Pitt Rivers Museum thrown in for good luck. This event is produced
by General Public Agency.
1. This Picnic produced the West Euston Workshop Purple Poets' concrete poem:
PoetTree (presented to the Wellcome Trust Archives after the event).
Anyone passing the Poetry Tree flip-chart were asked by Purple Poets to write
their favourite word on a pink heart sticky memo shape, which then became
a 'leaf' of the Poetry Tree. They were then asked to write their name
on a second sticky pink heart, which the Poets gave them to wear, and given
a purple balloon with their word written on the balloon. (when you see the
Wellcome Trust film of the picnic, the pink hearts people are wearing
are their names and the balloons have their word).
2. Patsy Futatsugi read her poem 'After the War' at the
Picnic to the Mayor of Camden, Councillor Omar Faruque Ansari.
3. Third Age project members baked a large batch of cupcakes
at the Acorn restaurant kitchens, to be handed out free at the picnic
4. Third Age Project members and West Euston Workshop members
contributed to the film of the picnic.
PURPLE POETS PROJECT 2.1
(Wellcome Trust Library 01.04.2009 and 02.04.2009)
Poems for "The Acts of Mercy"
paintings launch at the Wellcome Trust Library
poetry workshop at the Wellcome Trust
A series of large-scale paintings by the fashionable turn-of-the-century
British artist Fredrick Cayley Robinson (1862-1927) has been purchased by
the Wellcome Trust for public display in the Wellcome Library. Collectively
titled 'Acts of Mercy', and executed between 1916 and 1920, these significant
works were given to Middlesex Hospital by Sir Edmund Davis, the mining financier
and art collector. The four paintings were on display at the Middlesex Hospital,
which was part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
(UCLH) until 2007 when the Hospital closed for refurbishment.
SOURCE:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2009/WTX053129.htm
Islam Molla and Bithi Das, with West Euston Time Bank
writer-in-residence Kim Morrissey, were very kindly invited by the head librarian
of the Wellcome Library, Frances, to the launch of the 'Acts of
Mercy' paintings on Wednesday evening, April 1st 2009. The evening included
an inspiring talk and slide show about the paintings and the artist
by Richard Cork. The Purple Poets (Bithi, Patsy, Shelagh and Eppie) visited
the Wellcome Library's public gallery on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009,
where the four Acts of Mercy are displayed, and for our second
Wellcome Art For All: Access for All project, have written the
first drafts of poems celebrating The Acts of Mercy. these
first drafts were written in situ in the Wellcome Library
and also in the Peyton and Byrne Café at the Wellcome
Trust.
BACKGROUND
READING
WELLCOME COLLECTION WEBSITE:
An article by Peyton Skipwith in the current issue of Country Life discusses
the four large paintings by Frederick Cayley Robinson which are displayed
at the entrance to the Wellcome Library.
.... After cleaning the purple outlines around the figures make them seem
more unearthly, the artist's meticulously drawn squaring-up is more visible,
and the greens, violets and whites (suffragette livery!) shine out more strongly
against the drab surroundings.
http://wellcomelibrary.blogspot.com/2009/09/frederick-cayley-robinson-in-country.html
Four large paintings on canvas which were displayed in the Middlesex Hospital
have been saved from being auctioned off. After a campaign to prevent the
paintings from being sold the UCLH NHS Trust has bowed to public pressure
and announced that the paintings will be kept.
The “Acts of Mercy” as they are know are by the painter Frederick
Cayley Robinson and were painted during the First World War and installed
in the hospital’s entrance hall in 1922.... [CONTINUES]
.... Finally, Max [Neufied] agreed, we must all pay tribute to
Roisin Gadeirab of the Camden New Journal,
without whose shrewd, campaigning journalism, the pictures may have been
quietly sold off.
“The fate of the paintings is still uncertain. If they are not found
a suitable home within five years, the hospital has reserved the right to
put them on the open market. It is up to us all now to see that a commitment
to house these national treasures is made, and soon.”
“Their hushed atmosphere, tense geometry and subdued colour scheme respond
to the grim anxieties of the Home Front, as well as to their original classical
setting. The figures wait - for the doctor, for food, for peace. A columnar
tree cuts across ashlar. Greys tending to lilac, mauve and olive green set
off the plain white bowls of the orphans and the clean bandages of the wounded.
The glowing oil lamp in the foreground and the sash window illuminated in
the sober terrace beyond are at once marvellous and mundane Cayley
Robinson’s figures wait rather than act.”
- Nicholas Penny, curator of sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in
Washington DC. London Review of Books (17 April
2003)
CAMDEN
NEW JOURAL Mercy mission! Hospital art at National Gallery
Published: 22 April 2010
by TOM FOOT
HISTORIC hospital paintings that were rescued from the basement of the Old
Middlesex Hospital and kept on public display following a New Journal campaign
are to be exhibited in the National Gallery.
The Acts of Mercy by Frederick Cayley Robinson – four masterpieces
depicting medical healing and care for orphaned children – were just
days away from being sold at auction, but will now be hung in one of the
country’s most illustrious settings.
Hospital bosses had said the paintings “did not really suit” the
modern £450million University College London Hospital green glass building,
which replaced the Middlesex in 2006.
But the paintings were saved following pressure from the New Journal and
the Charlotte Street Association. National Gallery curators have described
them as holding “the spiritual integrity of the Old Masters” and
“the most important decorative commissions of the early part of the
20th century”.
Max Neufeld, former chairman of the Charlotte Street Association, said:
“They were in the basement of Christie’s ready to be auctioned.
We are very pleased they have not gone to Florida, or elsewhere. The National
Gallery’s interest shows how the attitude to Cayley Robinson has changed.
Initially people were fairly dismissive of the quality of these paintings.”
He added: “Locally, we’re extremely pleased to have some good news.
The CNJ really kept going at that.”
The paintings had been donated to the hospital by philanthropist Sir Edmund
Davis after he paid for the Middlesex Hospital’s entrance hall to be
rebuilt in 1912. In 2007, the Wellcome Collection in Euston Road charity
bought the paintings and they remain on public display. UCLH have agreed
to two of them in the hospital’s new cancer centre.
EXHIBITION At The National Gallery, London
Wed 14 Jul - Sun 17 Oct 2010
Frederick Cayley Robinson’s masterpiece, ‘Acts of Mercy’
(1916–20), comprises four large-scale allegorical works, which memorably
explore the positive forces of the human spirit in the face of destruction.
Cayley Robinson (1862–1927) is one of the most distinctive and yet elusive
British painters of the early 20th century. Essentially a British Symbolist,
Robinson created a striking variety of mood and atmosphere in his paintings
to evoke complex emotional responses.
http://www.list.co.uk/event/20015177-frederick-cayley-robinson-acts-of-mercy/
A series of large-scale paintings by the fashionable turn-of-the-century
British artist Fredrick Cayley Robinson (1862-1927) has been purchased by
the Wellcome Trust for public display in the Wellcome Library. Collectively
titled 'Acts of Mercy', and executed between 1916 and 1920, these significant
works were given to Middlesex Hospital by Sir Edmund Davis, the mining financier
and art collector. The four paintings were on display at the Middlesex Hospital,
which was part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
(UCLH) until 2007 when the Hospital closed for refurbishment.
UCLH, Tate Britain and the Wellcome Trust have been in discussion to ensure
these important works are retained for public benefit, as Sir Edmund Davis
intended. Tate Britain offered to safeguard the paintings while discussions
about finding a permanent location to display these extremely large works
were ongoing.
The Wellcome Trust has agreed to buy the paintings for £235 000 and
display two in the entrance to its Wellcome Library, which is part of Wellcome
Collection on Euston Road, next to University College Hospital. The other
pair will be kept in the Library's state-of-the-art storage facilities, where
they can also be viewed on special request. UCLH will continue to look for
an appropriate location to display these in any future developments. ...
[CONTINUES] The paintings will be on public display in the Wellcome Library
from March 2009.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2009/WTX053129.htm
At the height of an uproarious party in his Bloomsbury flat one November
night in 1950, Professor John Desmond Bernal, the
scientist, asked his most distinguished guest to draw on the living-room
wall.
Pablo Picasso climbed on to a stool and, fuelled with red wine and urged
on by his fellow guests, improvised a pair of angelic figures. The only mural
that the 20th century’s greatest artist produced in England was later
to be chiselled out of the plaster and has now been acquired by the Wellcome
Trust for its ambitious new gallery in Euston which will open on June 21.
Bernal’s Picasso is seen as the ideal emblem for the Wellcome Collection,
a £30 million venue exploring the connections between medicine, life
and art.
Bernal met Picasso in 1950 when they both planned to attend the World Peace
Congress in Sheffield. The conference never took place and a number of delegates
were stranded in London, including Picasso. Bernal organised a party in his
flat in Torrington Square and it was there that Picasso drew the mural.
Ken Arnold, head of public programmes for the Wellcome Trust, said: “It
is a rather wonderful emblem of an extraordinary moment in the history of
art and science when these two great figures and quite a lot of red wine
came together.
OTHER WELLCOME HIGHLIGHTS:
1 Mummified male body, Chimu, Peru (c.1200-1400)
From the north coast of Peru, where bodies were wrapped in bundles with layers
of fabric and equipped with personal possessions and food for the afterlife.
2 Charles Darwin's walking stick
Made from whalebone, with a rounded pommel made from a carved ivory skull
with green glass eyes.
3 Ivory anatomical model (17th century)
Small and delicately crafted model of a pregnant woman, complete with removable
baby and body parts. Probably German.
4 Chastity Belt (c.1775)
Iron and Velvet (velvet missing).
5 Eyeballs (19th century)
Victorian glass eyeballs with blue and brown irises, plus blood vessels in
red, made by W Halford of London.
6. Guillotine Blade 1770-1774
French.
Wellcome Trust, 183 Euston Road, London
Accessibility: excellent. Entrance on ground level. There is a wonderful
lift from ground to first level floor and some stunning pieces of art (look
up as you come in the entrance, not just at the Antony Gormley man on the
ceiling, but also, above the main entrance door, you will see the Picasso
crayon on plaster 'mural).
The temporary collections are on the ground floor, the permanent collection
is on the first floor, the Library is on the second floor. There are large,
comfortable lifts. Wide gate for people with wheel-chairs to access library
and gallery (and very friendly staff).
Writing possibilities: (circa December 2010): Some limitations due to thoughtless
design for those using a computer in the cafe. There are only one or two
power outlets are available in the cafe for people who can only sit
at regular height tables, as the majority of the power outlets are wired
into the section with built-in high table tops and high stools at the north
end of the cafe. There is a table on the first floor, by the West Wall's
postcard display, for a small group of people to sit and write. Travel. Closest tube station: Euston; closest bus stops, Euston
Road.
THE WELLCOME TRUST
Gibbs Building
215 Euston Road
London
NW1 2BE, UK
T +44 (0)20 7611 8888
contact@wellcome.ac.uk
ACCESSING THE ARTS
A list of suitable venues and unsuitable venues
for performing (DDA compliant or reasonable adjustments noted)
and for holding meetings (this is an on-going project)
FIRST FIELD TRIP AND ON-GOING
PROJECT (05.10.2006)
1930's Stained Glass Windows by Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope, (M.E.A.
Rope)
The Crypt, Munster Square
first visit by photographer Tatiana Schenck (09.05.2009)
these windows were commissioned for St. Augustine's (Hackney)
The West Euston Purple Poets are delighted to co-produce
poetry projects and readings inspired by Exhibitions and events hosted by
the Wellcome Trust, the National Portrait Gallery, The British
Museum, the Quaker Centre Friends Meeting House and Saint Mary Magdelene
Church, as well as other Workshop Cultural events, local history groups and
festivals.
The Purple Poets are committed to celebrating all the things which make life
in Camden delightful and extraordinary: Art, Local Food, Community, History,
Books. Neighbouring Projects. Our on-going project 'Art For All: Access For
All' celebrates works of art at all levels which are easily accessible to
everyone in Camden . As well as celebrating works of Art, this project will
follow-on from our MAPPING DEMOCRACY Access
for All project, by recording the ease of disability access to the various
public facilities.
Poetry takes time. This is a poetry-in-progress project (if poets feel their
first drafts aren't works they choose to share, they can add their second
or third drafts, or second or third responses, when and as they choose).
A NOTE ON ACCESSIBILITY. We use a common-sense, practical 'reasonable adjustment'
approach to accessibility. The Purple Poets are all members of the Third
Age project, however, and as such, know other Third Age Project members are
concerned with things such as whether the work of art is free to the public,
long walks to reach the venue, as well as stairs, and access to facilities.
(Where the work can't be viewed easily, or the venue is either not DDA Compliant,
or DDA Compliant, but more than a five minute walk from public transport,
any problem will be noted.)
Purple Poets
RELATED PROJECT: CYCLE RICKSHAW
(Bithi Das participated in the cycle Rickshaw Project for the British
Museum's
July 10th Bangladesh Family Day event. This art project , recreating a Rickshaw
,
was done with members of the Surma centre, Hopscotch, and King's Cross One
(KX1)
Bithi has helped with the painting and paperwork of the rickshaw - poem to
follow!
--Purple Poet Serajul Islam Molla reads his poem Diwali Lights (recorded at The Crypt on Saint George's Day 2009).
If you click on this link,
you can see our first You-Tube film ( a co-production with Kirsty Burns from
Cally Workshop).
http://www.youtube.com/user/callynka
Cally Workshop Broker Kirsty Burns showcased our first YouTube Purple Poetry
Reading
at the UK National Time Banking (TBUK) Conference in May 2009. (thanks,
Kirsty!)
For permission to use any of this material
please contact the Purple Poets
(poem AT purplepoets.com)
The Purple Poets have co-produced projects
with the Quaker Library
and the Wellcome Trust.
and The Royal College of Physicians The Bloomsbury Workshop
'ThePurples' create community projects promoting the 5 P's:
People, Poetry, Plants, Purple and Picnics
(our major project is Camden National Poetry
Day)
We also are keen on International Women's Day,
Local Summer Festivals and Green Fairs,
Disability Access, Friends of the Park, Tenants' Rights
Constitutions, and anything else our members find interesting
think purple! think poets!
Bloomsbury
The Purple Poets
for readings, projects and festivals contact Ferdous Rahman
rahmanferdous AT hotmail.co.uk
mailing address: The Purple Poets
c/o Flat 18 Chenies Street Chambers
Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7ET
