p2. NEWSTEAD ABBY

We went on a trip to Newstead Abby to give us inspiration for our next project where we have to create a piece to go into the Abby. Newstead Abby is best known as the ancestral home of Lord Byron and was a former monastery which then became a private home after Henry VIII closed down the monasteries. The wealth came from exploitation & other countries via the slave trade.

During this trip I was particularly interested in the statues placed round the Abby. Statues were a key interest during my first topic & I originally wanted to carry this on. I took many pictures of the statues I saw with the idea of creating my own out of clay. This was one of many ideas I had gathered during the walk round the Abby.

Another thing I took interest in was the small trinket boxes on display as they had beautifully carved patterns in them that looked like foliage or swirls. Some of these were made out of wood so I thought about making my own box & then burn patterns into it using a wood burning pen (pyrography). After discussing this idea, I decided there wasn't enough meaning to it & it didn't have a strong enough link to the history of the Abby.

 After listening to stories based round the history of Newstead, I decided to focus on hares.

There was a sword placed in a glass box which was used in a duel between Lord Byron & his cousin & neighbour, William Chaworth. The argument began as they both insisted they had more game on their estates & ended with William Chaworth dead. Lord Byron was then given the title, 'The Wicked Lord' & kept the sword on display in his bedroom. This story shows how extreme punishments could be back then for things that now seem like minor reasons. Punishments were mostly given to the less fortunate by the wealthy as poorer people lived in difficult circumstances which forced them into committing crimes. Poverty was a huge issue around this time period & many poorer people were exploited & 

The hares are related to the poaching done around this time period. Poaching was predominantly done by rich people which even more-so represents the divide between the wealthy & poor. 

Vincent Van Gogh - 'The Potato Eaters':

Van Gogh wanted to represent the harsh reality poor people faced during this time period. This is one of a collection of paintings he produced that shows poor people sat round a table eating potatoes, with coarse & bony faces & hands. The painting is in dull earth colours similar to that of a dusty potato & quite dark too which gives a moody & sad atmosphere to the piece. Artworks around this time were predominantly done of wealthy people, as a way to flash what they have & show themselves off because they could afford to. Van gogh wanted to shine light on the people on the opposite end of the spectrum who had to work really hard for the bare minimum. 

William Powell Frith -  'Poverty & Wealth'

Frith's approach to artworks that represent divide in society was a picture of a rich lady in her carriage passing a small shop with a poor man surrounded by ragged children. This approach doesn't suggest that anything should be changed within society at the time. Its a more aesthetically pleasing & doesn't express the true suffering people in poverty experienced at the time, unlike Van Gogh's work which expresses a more realistic & less pleasing version of the less fortunate.

These artworks are relevant to the Newstead project as they show the ignorance wealthy people had to the poor & show a contrast in peoples way of living at the time & how bad things were for people who had little money. The poor quality of life people had would often lead to crimes. Minor ones such as stealing & pick-pocketing would end up being harshly punished by death or torture, even though they more than likely had no other choice.

For Lord Byron, punishment wasn't necessary after he murdered his neighbour as he was a rich man. The rich controlled the poor. His crime stopped people from confronting him as they were too scared. If a poor person did the same thing, they would have the death penalty.

I want my work to be focused around the harsh reality people had to face & the imbalance in society during the 1800's.  As Newstead Abby aims to educate people on the mistreatment & exploitation of the less fortunate, this focus would help me produce an artwork that fits into this environment that also draws attention to the inequality people experienced.