Inhalation

Abstract

As Leverhulme Artist in Residence, Juliet MacDonald worked with First World War material from the Liddle Collection, held by Special Collections at Leeds University Library. This Collection, founded by the historian Dr Peter Liddle, includes recorded interviews, diaries, letters, official documents, sketchbooks and other items of personal significance relating to both world wars. The Collection has been awarded designated status for its international significance. The exhibition 'Inhalation' at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery opened in June 2015. It showed artworks that MacDonald made in direct response to the archive during the period of her residency. Alongside the artworks there were archive objects and documents selected by the artist. MacDonald used drawing as her primary means to study the Collection, paying close attention to visual material such as group photographs, postcards and printed manuals. The site of the archive was a focus of interest, but by way of contrast to the ordered atmosphere of the library she also explored the site of a former munitions factory, now demolished and overgrown. Pieces of ferrous metal found there are contrasted with the fragile paper documents that survive in the Collection. The exhibition incorporated drawing, digital images, digital video and installation. The artist’s residency was in co-operation with Special Collections and Legacies of War, the WW1 Centenary project at the University of Leeds