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| Phoebe Cummings | Duties | 2022 | Commissioned by Honeyscribe |
Out and about in Exeter this morning I encountered Phoebe Cummings' intricate clay work Duties that's being shown in the stairwell of Exeter's Custom House. It's a sensitive response to the building's extraordinary 17th century plaster ceilings by John Abbott, and also to its history as a site for weighing and measuring. Deliberately fragile, it's made of unfired clay, which is destined to shrink, crack, break and turn to dust over time. However, in a well-meaning attempt to preserve it, the work has been fenced in with various large pieces of signage and a rope, and its base tagged with a sheet of A4 paper 'Fragile - please do not touch'.
It brought home to me yet again the hazards (as well as the rewards) of placing work in non-gallery spaces. Showing work in heritage sites, gardens, farms, shops, hospitals and other public spaces means artists and curators reach a far wider and more diverse audience, but these are also places where there is no established structure or etiquette around the way art objects should be treated. They have to fend for themselves. Inevitably compromises have to be found, and the work can sometimes be lost or overwhelmed by what surrounds it.
It takes a certain amount of generosity to hand over your work in such circumstances and trust it will be looked after well - not just protected from theft or damage but presented properly too. I am full of admiration for an artist and curator who placed such a delicate, friable object in this public thoroughfare. In many ways, it adds to the tension and poignancy of the piece. But I am also reminded how difficult it can be to make art that respects and responds to a context when there's no guarantee such care will be reciprocated.
Phoebe Cummings DutiesInstallation & exhibition of works on paper 30 May - 24 July 2022
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