Apologues: (An awkward combination of things) by Lure Bergman

The work in this room is a rabble of unruly characters, causing a hubbub and making a stand for absurdity in a surreal world. They hope to disrupt things, cause heart trouble, look at you sideways and keep you guessing. It will be their pleasure to beguile you, confound you, hold on tight but probably stand you up. Like all the best beautiful things they are flawed, partially used and weathered by storms.

Through these odd bedfellows of hand-crafted artefacts and everyday objects, Apologues pieces together totems celebrating common tendencies, shared frailties and our capacity for love.

The work for the Apologues show was sparked by a ‘commonplace book’ in The Whitaker collection. Commonplace books were popular in the 1900’s for collating inspirational thoughts, poems, sketches and practical guidance – usually gathered from friends and acquaintances.

This particular book dates from 1865 and was kept by Miss Susan Knowles, a resident of Rossendale. The pages feature illustrations, poetry, psalms, thoughts and prose relating to a variety of themes such as faith, ethics, community and gender.

One page stands out. A sparse, simple page bearing the title ‘Advice Gratis’ with a hand written name ‘Margaret Swale, Westminster, Xmas, 1864’. It features a small cut-out, openable window revealing hand drawn manuscript. The manuscript has a b natural note with the label ‘ladies’ and a b sharp note with the label ‘gentlemen’.

Luce Bergman has invited others to explore the theme of Advice Gratis. Original handmade pages of ‘free advice’ will be collated and bound together to create a new commonplace book for The Whitaker’s permanent collection.