Frances Willoughby

The Sky Which is Beyond,

Installation view at CURIO, St Anne's House, Bristol, UK.

The Sky Which Is Beyond exhibited at Bricks, St Annes House, Bristol (2022) A black rectangular frame sits within the glass vitrine, small stones fill the base of the receptacle. Within this space three objects – a mannequin hand, a taxidermy bird and a conch shell are suspended in red semi-transparent vinyl compartments. The assemblage signifies the archive as a repository of memory, unstable and partial. It is an exploration into the counter-archive where the objects are fragments of a dreamscape, preserved, arranged, and classified. It comments on the narrative of individual memory and the role it plays in the visual recording of our collective histories. The objects which originate from the artist's personal collection, have been recontextualised into a souvenir of reverie. Taxonomy and Victorian taxidermy displays influence the visual aesthetic. The Sky Which Is Beyond draws on the rich history of the Wunderkammer or a cabinet of curiosities that typically stored collections of unusual objects and artefacts.