Special Outing: Birdsong at the Miniatures

The latest blog from Adam De Ville,  Resident Armchair Artist at The Beaney in Canterbury.

As the current Armchair Artist in Residence, I am exploring how the Beaney’s collection of artefacts make me feel and what associations and memories they trigger, related or unrelated.

We collect memories in a similar way to objects, keeping them safe, bringing them out now and again to remind ourselves. In sharing the Beaney’s collection of artefacts, they can trigger very different, personal responses and in some ways the artefacts are then changed; we see them differently because they mean something different to us all. These artefacts, they grow with us in time.

In addition to the artefacts’ origins, I am interested in whether we can help sustain them by sharing how we see them in our imagination.

So, I’ve decided to run a little experiment. As mentioned in my first blog (available from all good Beaney blog links), the cabinet of miniatures in the Materials and Masters room reminds me of my Nan and Grandad’s home and their knick-knack cabinet. It also reminds me of the birdsong because their cabinet was by the door to their back garden which felt like a meeting place for the neighbourhood bird population.

I recorded British summertime garden birdsong (blackbird, Wren, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Cuckoo, and Blue Tit) to play back next to the miniatures cabinet to help channel the feelings I get from the collection and possibly heighten the general sense of tweeness and the macabre.

The Birdsong at the Miniatures event is an attempt at sharing my response to this wonderful collection of artefacts. I’d like to invite you to share your response to the collection with me and indeed your response to my response!

Here are a couple of questions for you to consider on the day:

How does the miniatures collection make you feel?

How does the addition of birdsong affect your experience?

This meet the artist event will be on Saturday 25th June in the Materials and Masters room at the miniatures cabinet from 9.30 until around midday. It would be lovey to see you there and talk to you about how I work and what I’m doing here at the Beaney. Just drop in, it’s free!

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Artefacts in exhibition case The Beaney Museum

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