Work in Abundance

I haven’t posted in a while; this is largely owing to spending too much time at my computer, rather than too little.

I spent much of last week manacled to my laptop working on the text for the online version of the John Rylands Library’s Blake exhibition. It’s a curious process re-writing an exhibition for an online manifestation — it will basically follow the physical exhibition in terms of the groupings of works but it will be quite a different beast in a number of ways.

Obviously the “visitor” will lose the physical experience of seeing each item discussed, and in this case, working within the structure of the University’s website, it will only be possible to have a “slice” of each image “on show” alongside the explanatory text (although the full image will be available to open in a separate window).

On the other hand, given that the exhibition focuses on Blake and the art of the book, a major limitation for the physical exhibition is that it is only possible to show one opening for each volume; in the online exhibition, it will be possible to showcase multiple pages.

The research has taken me to areas I might not otherwise have looked at in as much detail, which has both broadened my horizons and made me spot things which may actually have a bearing on some of the works I am looking at for my thesis.

This week I did get away from the computer a bit more, using some of the research I’ve been doing in relation to the web exhibition in a collection-based session at the Library on Blake and the Gothic. Blake was fascinated by the Gothic and the Library is a magnificent late-Victorian neo-Gothic building (images of the building are available via the University’s online image collections, LUNA).

The Gothic qualities of Blake’s works was also one of the reasons why he appealed to Victorian critics, artists and designers; the reception of Blake by these figures is one of the themes of the exhibition. In the collection encounter we also showed items associated with the Gothic phenomenon, such as Walpole’s Castle of Otranto and some spooky plates by Fuseli et al from Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery. My online exhibition text will discuss all this material so watch this space.

I ran this tour twice; for one session I actually had just one visitor, but this made it much more of a conversation which was rather nice.

I also went down (or up) to Cambridge to a conference of visualising the Bible in the nineteenth-century; in fact it was very much mid-nineteenth century, so complemented my forays into the Gothic revival and Blake’s Victorian commentators. It was also a good opportunity to see some old friends and walk some dogs.

Now to refocus my doors of perception on Blake himself and get my first chapter of my thesis drafted.

And I almost forgot, I went to the Tate a couple of weeks ago to see their new dedicated Blake room. They have re-displayed their collection in a chronological hang, but together with Turner, Blake is divorced from his context, in his own chamber-like (maybe even church-like) space which one can access without passing through any other gallery. I’ve mixed feelings about this consequence of the new hang, but it was certainly a treat to spend time surrounded by Blakes!

An Ocean of Activity

Earlier in the week I posted something I’d written a couple of weeks ago about my various activities for the Blake exhibition at the John Rylands Library.

 

I’ve been making progress since then — I had my schools workshops this week and have written the first few bits of text for the web version of the exhibition. I’ve also finalised the order for photography of items in the collection and for the objects I am going to be showing in my “Collection Encounter” sessions for the public programme.

 

The web exhibition will be able to explore some of the objects in the exhibition, and the connections between them, in more detail than is possible in a physical exhibition, because there is space for more text and, because, particular to the display of books, it becomes possible to show more than one page online.

 

This week, I’ve been working on the text about Blake’s commercial engravings, which has prompted me to look at these in more detail than I have previously (and might otherwise have done), which has helped me to spot some unexpected connections with images I am looking at in my thesis, which is great.

 

I’ve also been looking through photos of the work produced in the schools workshops which have been run alongside the exhibition — both my own and workshops by two MA students, Amy and Liz. It has been great to see the quality of some of the work produced, but I need to think about choosing a selection to actually feature on the website to avoid overwhelming the online visitors.

 

Meanwhile, in PhD-land, having finished most of the research for my chapter on Christ’s public ministry and accumulated far too much material, I’m now in the process of working out what will actually go into the thesis, which is going to mean me being pretty ruthless with myself.

 

Below is a record of the workshops I ran this week for schools for the Blake exhibition at the John Rylands Library which will eventually form part of a write-up of all my activities related to the exhibition for the Afterlife of Heritage Research Project.  It largely repeats things I’ve said here before, but I’ve written it for my own benefit while it’s still fresh in my mind.

 

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As part of the education programme to accompany the exhibition Burning Bright: William Blake and the Art of the Book, I created a workshop for schools which focused on how Blake took inspiration the Bible and explored other ways of representing Bible stories.

The workshop was inspired by Blake’s Illustrations to the Book of Job, a series of engravings which he published in 1826. The Library’s copy was discovered two years ago by student interns ‘excavating’ Blake material in the collection (it was previously uncatalogued), so this is (probably) the first time it has been on display to the public. Each engraving is composed of an image surrounded by a wide margin containing text and motifs which act as a commentary on the story.

Another star object in the exhibition is the 1797 edition of Edward Young’s Night Thoughts which contains engravings by Blake surrounding the text of the poem. The Library’s copy is particularly special because it is one of twenty-six copies hand-coloured by Blake and his wife Catherine. Although not explicitly referenced in Young’s poem, Blake uses Biblical stories in several of his illustrations.

I took as the prompt for my activity Blake’s image of the Good Samaritan in Night Thoughts which illustrates the poet’s idea that “Love, and Love only, is the Loan for Love” (NT II 571). The parable features in the Religious Studies syllabus, and it is an image which I have looked at for my own research (I am working on a PhD thesis on Blake’s images of Christ), so it seemed a good starting point.

We talked about different ways that Bible stories can be recreated (painting, literature, film …) and about what Blake does with Biblical narratives. The main activity consisted of students creating their own version of the Good Samaritan, either in a format like Blake’s Job designs, or with a more modern twist as a newspaper article.

I ran this workshop for two groups (rather less than my original five owing to cancellations and a no-show): the first was eight quiet Year 10s (aged 14-15), the second twenty-nine lively Year 9s (aged 13-14). So the two sessions had completely different dynamics, but both groups produced some good work, with some students picking up ideas from Blake, which was great to see. Examples of work produced will be included in a web version of the exhibition.

Burning Bright. Part 1: Kindling

This is a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago for the Afterlife of Heritage Research Project through which I took part in training about how to develop public outputs from research. Apologies there is some repetition from previous posts here. Things have moved on in the past two weeks, so this will serve as a precursor to an update I hope to write at the end of the week.

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My project is linked to the exhibition “Burning Bright” at the John Rylands Library which examines William Blake and the world of the book.  The exhibition includes books illustrated by Blake and explores his impact on subsequent generations of artists and writers. Blake’s influence continues to “burn bright” and activities alongside the exhibition encourage visitors to take creative inspiration from his work.

Blake’s work as a visual artist is the focus of my PhD — specifically, I am examining the role of Christ in Blake’s images — so I had a ready-made opportunity to relate my research to public audiences. There are three strands to my contribution to the exhibition programme: creating a workshop for school groups inspired by the exhibition, devising a tour for the public programme, and contributing to an online version of the exhibition. After months of meetings, planning and looking at books in the reading room, things are coming together, so I’m going to share how things are shaping up.

Schools workshop: Blake and the Bible

Taking as its inspiration Blake’s Illustrations to the Book of Job, a copy of which is in the exhibition (and was only recently discovered in the Rylands collection), my workshop will explore different ways of retelling stories from the Bible, with students creating their own version of a Bible story. I’m going to give the students a choice of producing either a design in the format of Blake’s Job illustrations (which have an image in the centre with commentary and designs in the margin) or a newspaper article.

Preparing for this workshop has involved lots of discussion with the education team and I’ve sat in on some other workshops in the education programme to help get a feel for what works well. There are also two MA students, Liz and Amy, running workshops alongside the exhibition, and each of us has chosen a different theme. I sat in on one of Amy’s workshops last week, which was on personification, with pupils writing personification poems, and it was fantastic to see how well the pupils engaged with the theme.

I’m going to be running my session for five groups between years 7 – 10 in the middle of May and I’m looking forward to seeing what results come of it!

Advertising for the exhibition education programme.

Public tour: Blake and the Gothic

This tour will explore Blake’s fascination with the Gothic, inspired by the John Rylands Library itself which is a grand neo-Gothic building. This will be an opportunity to show visitors items from the collection not included in the exhibition — by Blake himself and by others interested in the Gothic to weave a narrative between Blake and the library building.

Preparation has involved lots of delving through books from the collection and I’ve been spoilt for choice because the collection is so rich in this area, so I have had to be very self-disciplined in deciding what to use. Stella Halkyard who looks after visual collections at the library and curated “Burning Bright” has been a great source of advice and arranged for me to see the massive volumes of Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery (it takes two people to move them) which contain some fantastically spooky engravings of subjects from Shakespeare by Blake’s friends and foes.

I’ll be running this tour twice in June.

Burning Bright online

Once all the books in the exhibition have been returned to the stores at the end of Jun, “Burning Bright” will continue to burn in the shape of an online exhibition. This will provide a legacy for the exhibition itself and for the activities which have taken place alongside it. Work produced in the schools workshops is being photographed as are the fruits of printing workshops offered as part of the public programme. I will also be writing up a version of my Gothic tour. The funding from the Afterlife of Heritage Research Project will help to pay for the photography of items in the collection for the online exhibition.

I was part of a meeting about the online exhibition last week and the provisional designs look great, so I’m excited about seeing how it will come together. I’ve come up with an idea for the structure which I need to discuss with the web team, and I need to finalise my order for the photography department, then start writing it all up.

An example of work produced in a printing workshop, inspired by one of Blake’s Illustrations to the Book of Job.