A NEW exhibition will shed light on some of Warrington Museum’s hidden gems while celebrating the talents of a north west artist.
Michelle Leigh was invited to explore the museum’s many artefacts from all over the world as part of a project to reinterpret them through a series of paintings in her distinct style.
Launching on Saturday, August 15, and with the aim to bring often overlooked items into renewed focus, the exhibition is called Six Objects in Search of an Artist.
The artefacts Michelle found inspiration from included 19th century anatomical plant models made in Germany, taxidermied birds such as the ibis, a model of a tuna fish made out of recycled beer cans by contemporary artist Val Hunt, dresses designed by Warrington-born legendary 1960s fashion designer Ossie Clark, a fragment of Egyptian coffin wood and a snake skeleton in a Victorian glass jar.
Michelle, whose work is held in collections in the UK and internationally, said: “This collaboration is the first time I have worked with Warrington Museum and Art Gallery.
“It was a great privilege and gave me a deeper understanding of the importance of preserving the museum’s unique and diverse collection for ongoing generations.
“The show has enabled me to continue a narrative thread which has been running through my recent work, while allowing me to expand upon it into new, challenging and exciting territory.”
During her research at Warrington Museum, Michelle became increasingly aware of how lighting can play a factor in how visitors engage with the collections.
Low light is often necessary to preserve delicate historical artefacts, but she felt some seemed to be ‘crying out to be acknowledged more’.
While the ‘eureka’ moment for the show’s name came from a twist on the title of a 1921 absurdist play by Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Michelle added: “I wondered whether I could reimagine six objects from the collections and – through my paintings – almost give them a new lease of life.
“I was fired up by this eclectic collection and the poetic licence I was given to reinterpret them.
“My paintings have previously been concerned with weaving strands together of myth, memory and everyday experience and this was a golden opportunity to take this ‘narrative’ into new territory.”
Michelle trained at Manchester Polytechnic and Newcastle University and is now based at Rogue Artists’ Studios in East Manchester.
Her first professional solo show was at The Coach House Gallery of Contemporary Art in Kirkby Lonsdale in 1988, and now her acclaimed work is held in both public and private collections worldwide including the United States, Portugal and Austria.
Working across oil, watercolours and print, her practice draws on place and memory, distilling everyday scenes into evocative, pared-back images.
She said: “I’m from a working class Jewish background and in the 70s, as a child, my family upped sticks to what they hoped would be a better life abroad.
“They sold their house to pay for the tickets, but it didn’t work out and what followed were years of moving around Greater Manchester as they tried to re-establish themselves.
“With constantly changing surroundings, painting and drawing was my escapism. Sitting at the corner of the kitchen table, I drew inspiration from what I saw around me.
“Rituals from my family life such as candles being lit on Sabbaths and during festivals, the patterned headscarf of my mother, my brother playing the violin on the stairs.
“My fairly nomadic early life also shaped my views and awareness of the rich diversity of cultures which exist in the north west. Making art was the one constant while the rest of my life was often in a state of flux.”
Six Objects in Search of an Artist opens at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday, August 15, and runs until 1 November. It is free to view.
