In praise of scratching (with James Arguile)
A statue of Queen Cynethryth made of daub containing shredded King Offa Junior Academy school uniform, sea water and liquid soap. The cracks in the daub are sealed with Christmas pudding, itself mixed with seawater and microwaved. Where Cynethryth's crown would be sits a POS receipt printer, out of which falls a scroll printed with details of the lives and exploits of Queen Cynethryth and nineteenth-century nurse, missionary and explorer Kate Marsden. On its rear face hangs an oil painting of Kate Marsden, itself a replica of a photographic portrait that was donated to Bexhill Museum in the 1930s and subsequently refused. This replica was painted by James Arguile a fellow Bexhillian artist and childhood classmate of Carl Gent.
In praise of scratching (with James Arguile)
2019
Daub, dried grand wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), fuchsia petals, soil, coal dust, liquid soap, sea water, Christmas pudding, King Offa Primary Academy school uniform, receipt POS printer, thermal print on receipt roll, oil portrait of Kate Marsden on board, gilt frame
Photography by Susan Jane Dunford and Rob Harris, courtesy of the De La Warr Pavilion
Commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion for Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistence, Act II