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Dangerous Diaries
Project Researchers: Emma Richardson and Sarah Wilkes (Institute of Making)
Project Funders: UCL Museums and Collections
William
Morris reportedly employed arsenic-based pigments in his popular
wallpapers, and artist Eva Hesse is said to have died as a result of her
use of industrial materials such as polyester resins and latex rubbers.
But to what extent do the joys and benefits of using these materials
outweigh their potential hazards?
This project explores the risks
and rewards involved in fabrication by delving into the daily lives of a
group of materials and making enthusiasts, including a chemist,
conservator, ceramicist, geoarchaeologist, printmaker, sculptor,
anthropologist and a historian. This interdisciplinary team will be
keeping diaries that record their experiences of the pleasures and
perils of production: from carving to cooking, printmaking to
glassblowing. In conversation with artefacts from the UCL Collections,
our dangerous diarists will be reflecting on how perceptions of risk and
approaches to hands-on engagement with materials have changed over
time.
To follow our progress, see: dangerousdiariesblog
