A Provisional Memorial to Nuclear Disarmament
- Submitting institution
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Goldsmiths' College
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 3617
- Type
- L - Artefact
- Location
- KARST Gallery, Plymouth, United Kingdom
- Open access status
- -
- Month of production
- June
- Year of production
- 2016
- URL
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http://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/23957/
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- A Provisional Memorial to Nuclear Disarmament was commissioned by Ele Carpenter for Arts Catalyst. The work juxtaposes painted anti-nuclear images and signs from the 1960s to the 1980s onto William Morris fabrics suspended from old projection screens, which are then installed in the gallery to look like a parade or demonstration. The work has been exhibited in five different venues in three countries, including: Bildmuseet, Umea, Sweden and Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden. _x000D_
_x000D_
Mabb discovered that William Morris’s Rose fabric was used to upholster the interiors of British nuclear submarines from the early 1960s to the mid 1990s and the installation was generated out of a desire to investigate this counter-intuitive use of Morris’ textiles. Key research questions were:_x000D_
_x000D_
In what ways is the use of a William Morris fabric as a decorative feature on a Royal Navy Nuclear submarine profoundly contradictory and how does this use change our understanding of the reception of Morris’ utopian designs?_x000D_
_x000D_
How can this contradiction be explored in an art installation featuring Morris’ fabric designs?_x000D_
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How is it possible to find a context for Morris’ fabrics that reasserts their radical potential and what do these designs have to offer in today’s political context? _x000D_
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The anti-nuclear slogans and symbols carry with them a history of struggle, but might now appear to be clichés. The Morris fabrics, too, in their contemporary mass-produced form, seem overly familiar. In ‘interlacing’ the slogans and the Morris fabrics there is the possibility of reading them both afresh. _x000D_
_x000D_
The Provisional Memorial to Nuclear Disarmament re-conceptualises how art and design might function as part of a political struggle for a nuclear free-world. It takes back Morris’ fabrics from their appropriation by the Ministry of Defence and re-appropriate them for anti-nuclear protest.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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