Ellington Park Performance​​
23rd March 2014
On chilly damp afternoon around 150 people turned out for the first Resting Place performance that lasted approximately 15 minutes, followed by tea and cakes, made from recipes found in Clarice’s archive.
The bandstand was adorned with bunting sent from across the UK (see below) and there was country dancing. The intention was to give Clarice a rousing send- off, something only the men experienced when heading off the war front.
The event deeply affected many, causing people to consider the sheer consequences of heading to war, the disruption to life and the likely apprehensions a young women would have leaving home for the first time on such an adventure.
Bunting Book
April 2014
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'On wishing her goodbye' invited people around the country to participate in the first Resting Place event by creating a piece of bunting expressing what they would say to a young women heading off to war.
72 bunting flags were received from around the UK. These were made up into strings of bunting and used to adorn the bandstand in Ellington Park at the first Resting Place event on 23 March 2014.
Dawn Cole created 8 bunting books to act as a permanent record of this part of the project. Containing 8 flags with its own storage box, each book is bound so they can be looked like a traditional book or open up to form an octagon, referencing the shape of the bandstand on which they hung. The flags can be removed from the covers and reused as bunting.
Behind the Scenes
Rehearsals, Research & Marketing
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An ongoing, regularly updated gallery of rehearsals and research site visits for you to follow the project
Ellington park rehearsals 16th Mar 2014
Charing Cross station site visit 11th Feb 2014
Bunting: On wishing her goodbye
January - March 2014
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We invited people around the country (and world) to participate in the first of our Resting Place events by creating a piece of bunting expressing what you would say to a young women heading off to war.
Men were given a rousing send off to war in the early years of the First World War but women leaving to nurse and serve the front were not even acknowledged for the sacrifice they were undertaking.
'On wishing her goodbye' was a resounding success with 72 flags received from around the UK to adorn the bandstand in Ellington Park. We were overwhelmed by the thought that went in to the design and making of the flags and the moving messages written on them, many of which seemed to have a personal significance to the sender.
Gallery
Image of Resting Place performances and archive as it develops over two years from 2014 to 2016
Ramsgate to Charing Cross
10th May 2014
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On Saturday 10th May 2014, at 9.00am, a performance took place in Ramsgate Railway station booking hall before artists and audience joined a train, especially prepared by Southeastern Railways, for a journey to London. En route, a sound installation of the train’s electro-magnetic signals, which exist naturally outside of our aural perception, presented a rare opportunity to hear unheard sounds that envelope our daily world. At London Charing Cross station, courtesy of Network Rail, hundreds gathered around a pile of soil in the centre of the concourse, a single female created a powerful movement performance with pillowcases, while a male voice read from a diary of a young woman heading to the battlefront during the First World War to become a VAD nurse. The reaction of many who witnessed this sudden event was intense. Read more and see full gallery [click]
