Works created in response to the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, as part of the "SoCo Collect" exhibition

'Work' part of ‘Collect’ Soco
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery
Part of Coastal Currents Arts Festival
Curated by Sinéid Codd Chair of Soco Artists and
Catherine Harvey Keeper of Art and World Cultures, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery.
Kathleen Mullaniff read the book "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" written by Robert Tressall which is based on the town of Hastings. Hastings Museum and Art Gallery hold an archive chronicling the life and work of Robert Tressall (Robert Noonan). Accounts of the novel imply that the plot is based on the author’s own experience of working as a sign writer and builder in Hastings. The main story takes place in a house described as ‘the cave’. Kathleen was affected by the lucid descriptions of the poor working conditions of the builders and decorators employed in the fictional town of Mugsborough. Kathleen has responded to the archive collection by producing a set of paintings in black and white depicting poor women and children of the Victorian period engaged in piecework and in textile mills. The paintings are reminiscent off printed socialist pamphlets distributed at the time.
Archive/Objects/Letters and Photographs
Based on the archive chronicling the life and work of Robert Tressall (Robert Noonan). Hastings Museum and Art Gallery.
Catalogue. 'Collect'
Essays Sinéid Codd and
Catherine Harvey
‘Collect’ artists: Oona Ball, Sinéid Codd, Roz Cran, Jean Davey Winter, Maggie Henton, Adrienne Hunter, Sue Johnson, Alex Leadbeater, Mary Morris, Kathleen Mullaniff, Jim Northover, Carly Ralph, Helen Scalway and Charlotte Snook.