MO(NU)MENTARIES
“Towards Memorial: Bury Art Museum”, two-part exhibition at Bury Art Museum, 2021-2
Installation photography by Jules Lister
Taken from the gallery interpretation panel:
The exhibition is centred around “Towards Memorial: 3-channel film” (2019-) produced by Picture Story Productions, documenting the remaking of the Carpenter sandals with ethical shoemaker Nobel & Wylie; the gifting to The Friends of Edward Carpenter, a group that work to raise his profile and legacy; and the wearing, whilst locating a site in Sheffield city centre for a permanent public memorial to Carpenter. This is where the project began to gain critical momentum. Asking can a pair of sandals be a form of public memorial when they are worn? A new chapter of the film “Towards Memorial: Rainbow Walk” (2021) explores Carpenter’s continued legacy, by gifting sandals to LGBTQI+ community champions during the recent ‘Rainbow Walk’ through Bury town centre.
The exhibition also includes artworks and artefacts generated out of the production of the project, including trade union style banners used during the ‘Rainbow Walk’; a display of the Carpenter sandals in tribute to his long term relationship with Merrill, the inspiration to the E. M. Forster 1913-14 novel “Maurice”; a graphic logo concept “Self 1892”, developed with graphic designer Jon Cannon, derived from an inscription on a paper foot pattern, pertaining to Carpenter himself; and a series of postcards worn in the artist’s and his boyfriend’s shoes, throughout 2018/19, and during the recent pandemic lockdown in 2020/21, suggesting a visual evolution of gay political protest.
Supported by Making Ways (Sheffield Culture Consortium), Arts Council England, Art Design Media Research Centre (ADMRC) at Sheffield Hallam University, Site Gallery, Freelands Foundation, Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre, and Social Art Publications.