a

Penelope Stewart is an artist, curator/writer and publisher whose multi-disciplinary practice encompasses expansive architectural installations/interventions, alternative photography, artist books, and works on paper. Re-current themes address notions of cultural memory, of time and space and a considered approach to the relationship between objects, architecture, gardens, landscape and the places between – places to intervene, inhabit and above all activate. Whether it has been historic sites such as Musée Barthète, a small museum in France, or a museum like the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY or the deconstruction/reconstruction of a 19 th century book of botany using cyanotype, her intentions are to create sensory spaces, haptic experiences, transforming our perceptions and possible readings of space, time and memory.

read more

In.
Back to Top

Musée Barthète, Boussan, France 2007

Maison Patrimoniale de Barthète – Boussan, France, 2007  

Musée Barthète, Boussan, France, is a museum dedicated to the collection of historical tiles, ceramics and contemporary art. While in residence at the museum, I had access to the large tile collection, and was able to visit the many medieval towns and farms close by.  As well I was able to make several trips to the 10,000 year old Magdalenian Caves situated in the mountain ranges of the Pyrenées close to the museum.  It is from these experiences that I was inspired to create a series of high relief tiles that resembled both the floral motifs repeated in the local 15th century tile collection and the stalagmites on the rock face in the caves.  Beekeeping too is a big part of life in this part of France and fostered the use of beeswax as an architectural building material and so over 4000 tiles were cast from beeswax and a room at the museum was tiled from floor to ceiling.

(Review) Respirer L’art: Le parfum Flave de la cire
(Essay) La Chambre des Catharsis
(Essay) Excerpts from a Conversation

www.barthete.com