Artistic Responses
Manifold Works
Manifold Works is my response to the Lepidoptera of Marmaduke Tunstall which once formed part of the Newcastle Museum now most likely reduced to dust. I aimed to resurrect the collection and release the moths across the void of the James Knott Room. Each of the listed species is cut from fifteen A5 size notebooks which were mounted like lecterns along the rail of the balcony. Below hundreds of paper moths were pinned to the tops of the books cases in eccentric, overlapping flight paths suggesting meandering thought patterns stimulated by study, spiralling on inter-connecting trajectories of free association – flights of fancy and imagination.
The title for my piece is adapted from an inscription carved into the original display cases.
The moths represented are: The Emperor, Six-spot Burnett, The Puss Moth, Dark Crimson Underwing, Garden Tiger, Great Prominent, The Magpie, Silver Y, The Cinnabar, White Satin Moth, Oak Eggar, The Drinker, Large Yellow Underwing, Hummingbird Hawkmoth and The Forrester.