Triangle from the Holburne sisters’ album card with embossed foil border after 1817
From The Nameless Grace an installation by Holly Davey 2014
HOLLY DAVEY
The Nameless Grace
18 October 2014 to 4 January 2015
Holly Davey has been researching the Holburne Museum’s collection with a particular interest in the three Holburne sisters, especially Mary Ann Barbara (1802 - 1882), the last of the Holburne family line.
Working with objects from the collection and research surrounding the period, Davey’s installation blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction, encouraging the audience to reflect on and reanimate the hidden and largely forgotten existence of these women’s lives.
As the artist explains: “I am interested in the heritage of a location or collection especially its lost and largely forgotten social history. I am interested in researching and developing ideas that explore notions of fact and fiction, blurring the boundaries and making my audience question what is real.”
This is a co - commission with The Holburne Museum, Bath and ICIA, University of Bath, with part two in the opening season of the new Centre for the Arts in Spring 2015.
The Holburne Museum houses an important art collection formed by Sir William Holburne in the nineteenth century, which includes paintings, silver, sculpture, furniture and porcelain of national and international significance. Artists in the collection include Gainsborough, Guardi, Stubbs, Ramsay and Zoffany.
The Museum reopened in May 2011 after ambitious renovations and a new extension by Eric Parry Architects. The Holburne has fast gained a reputation as one of a number of outstanding regional museums in the UK.
· Winner of the Museums & Heritage Award for the re-display of the permanent collection.
· Winner of RIBA Building of the Year, south west.
· Winner of the Civic Trust’s Michael Middleton Special Award for a restoration/extension project within a conservation area.
Holly Davey is an artist working with ideas surrounding memory, object and archive. Since graduating Goldsmiths College, London in 1998, she has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in the UK and internationally. In 2013 she was awarded a large commission at the National Museum Wales that was supported by The Colwinston Charitable Trust. In 2010 she received a Creative Wales Award. She lives and works in Cardiff.
ICIA is a contemporary arts organisation, part of the University of Bath. At ICIA audiences from across the region can come together with artists, scholars and students to encounter, debate, challenge and explore contemporary ideas.
As well as commissioning, we also select and present new and exciting touring work and we also offer a range of classes and workshops with highly skilled tutors, all open to the general public alongside our student community.
The university’s new Centre for the Arts will be our new home in 2015, but until then, find us in venues across the city and on campus. We look forward to welcoming you.
The Holburne Museum
Great Pulteney Street
Bath, BA2 4DB
T: +44 (0)1225 388569
The Holburne Museum
Holly Davey
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