Writing Home: WW2 installation

Alongside our show The Archivists from Edith Tankus, we’ve had Ruth Cross and Sue Palmer working with two local schools, Shaftesbury Park and St Joseph’s, and the local University of the Third Age to create, among other things, a fantastic installation in our upper Foyer.

The show may have now finished, but you can still catch the installation which takes inspiration from evacuees’ letters to and from home.

Personally, this is exactly the kind of exhibition I love with artifacts from the past displayed alongside new work created in response to them. There’s something extremely exciting about seeing products, clothing and printed material form another era that can really bring it alive, and the children’s and older folks’ letters and artwork evoke feelings and ideas which help engage with the themes.

The work culminated in a lunch together where we all shared the food which would have been available during rationing, and we announced the creation of a time capsule to be opened in 2080.

All the participants had written letters to the future recipients of the capsule, and it will be hidden away below the floor of Battersea Arts Centre until its opening date in 65 years’ time.  A plaque will be fixed to the wall in our Waiting Room exhibition space to record this fact.

You can also pick up some free postcards created from the artwork in the installation and I’d definitely encourage you to come and see it.

It was actually thrilling to see young and old come together to create something, and new friendships have formed throughout the group.

Pictures by Ludovic des Cognats and Tref Davies