Back in February I posted about My Foundling Girl - the object I'd been assigned as part of 26 Pairs of Eyes: Looking at the Overlooked. This project was a collaboration between the writers' collective 26 and The Foundling Museum in London. The curators chose 26 objects which were then assigned at random to 26 writers for their response. The resulting exhibition runs all summer.* If you possibly can, go and visit - the museum is fascinating - humbling, heartbreaking and hopeful in equal measures - and the sestudes (62 word pieces - 62 being 26 backwards) offer new insights into the chosen artefacts.
If you can't visit, though, there's an online alternative here, where you can browse through the objects the curators chose, the authors' responses and background pieces on the process as well.
My object was a marble bust called "The Foundling Girl" made by David Watson Stevenson in 1871 -
and my response to her is here. Is she my favourite object in the whole museum? Absolutely. * The exhibition runs from 4 June to 6 September 2015 at The Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London. Joan Lennon's website. Joan Lennon's blog.
I've just spent an hour, absolutely absorbed by the stories, and stories of stories on the website. Tiny morsels, but so powerful. Absolutely wonderful. Thank you, Joan.
Thank you! I only found the museum quite recently -I remember the bust, and love the poem. I shall ave to come back to the website to read the other stories.
Thanks Pippa and Marjorie - I was in London for the In Performance thing and it was wonderful to be part of putting voices to the words - another dimension. And the next day I went back again to an amazing violin and piano concert in the Picture Gallery - the Museum is such an astonishingly rich combination of loss and hope, philanthropy, history, art and music.
I've just spent an hour, absolutely absorbed by the stories, and stories of stories on the website. Tiny morsels, but so powerful. Absolutely wonderful. Thank you, Joan.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I only found the museum quite recently -I remember the bust, and love the poem.
ReplyDeleteI shall ave to come back to the website to read the other stories.
Thanks Pippa and Marjorie - I was in London for the In Performance thing and it was wonderful to be part of putting voices to the words - another dimension. And the next day I went back again to an amazing violin and piano concert in the Picture Gallery - the Museum is such an astonishingly rich combination of loss and hope, philanthropy, history, art and music.
ReplyDelete