History

Abstract

HISTORY, a site-specific Installation by Stephen Cooper in the side chamber of Hyde Abbey Gate. Hyde, Winchester
MON 5TH April- MON. 3I MAY 2010

Hyde Abbey Chamber is one of the last remains of the Hyde Abbey and is dated approximately 1,100.I was invited for this project to make a site specific painting that was to situated amongst this historic situation.The project has taken over a year to execute and will be running to the end of may.

‘Statement


“From the outset of this project, I wanted to set up a contrast between my work and the history and architecture of Hyde Abbey Gate Chamber. I did not wish to construct a narrative that illustrates the building’s history.
“The building encloses an almost cubic space embedded with history, both past and contemporary; the graffiti, the contextual panels all adding to the character of this ancient site. My work attempts to make a comparison between the historical and the present. One of my central concerns is to map and integrate different spaces and ideas: a landscape is contrasted with a molecular system, which is in turn compared with a diagrammatic black hole. The fusing together of these spaces is involved in the art of imagining. I attempt to use a mixture of systems, the subjective and the distant, the personal and the objective, the autobiographical and the scientific.
“For me, this project represents the placing of my work within the historic and the actual, and attempts to extend and embrace the question of memory, whether it is public or private, secular or sacred, or historic and imaginary.”

Stephen Cooper, April 2010

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