Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Westminster
'A Dark Day in Paradise'
The exhibition consisted of a swarm of 3,500 black-glazed ceramic butterflies in several sites in Brighton’s Royal Pavilion: in the Banqueting Room, between the columns in the Great Kitchen, in the Entrance Hall, and in other ground floor rooms. The butterflies were clustered on the banqueting table, across windowpanes, in roof lights, on mantelpieces and other surfaces. They were all individually finished: some with wings open, some almost completely folded in on themselves, some appearing to be in flight, others looking sedentary. The butterflies were overlaid and integrated with the existing decorative schema of the pavilion to create a dialogue between the original architectural features and the ceramic intervention. The work was commissioned under the Museum Maker Scheme (£18,500), funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), Renaissance in the Regions and Arts Council England.
Twomey was responsible for the project concept, development of the artwork prototypes, production and installation plans.
Please see portfolio for fuller documentation of research dimensions.
Twomey’s research in 'A Dark Day In Paradise' interrogates the interface between museum sites and ceramic interventions and is situated in a field of recent ceramic practice concerned with site and intervention. Within the visual arts, the exhibition ‘Time Machine’ at The British Museum (1994) has become a model for practitioners working with painting, video and sculpture interventions in museum collections. Moreover, various projects by de Waal (2005 and 2007) have explored the role of ceramics as a medium of intervention. 'A Dark Day In Paradise' asks additional questions about the role of the audience in ceramics interventions. The integration of ceramics within the decorative schema of the Pavilion’s rooms created an excessive, immersive environment. Its sensory loading encouraged audiences to reflect on the relationship between the existing, grandiose, historical architectural features and the intervention, and to make a narrative connection between the parts. This was reinforced by the scale of the installation, which operated over several rooms and spaces in the Royal Pavilion: the audience was required to actively generate historical, material and spatial relations through navigation of the Pavilion’s disparate spaces. The work began as a written and illustrated proposal after a visit to the Royal Pavilion. Ideas were further explored through sample works in clay. After curatorial approval was received, plaster slip casting moulds were made of the butterfly models. A small team was trained with the skills to make the butterflies in slip cast moulds to aid production time. Installing the work on site involved negotiating a complex series of requirements and restrictions. Working with the restoration team, the artist mapped every placement of the 3,000 butterflies. On the basis of this research, Denver Art Museum commissioned Twomey to make a new work.
