Migrating Artefacts: Rebecca Jewell
‘Rebecca Jewell has always worked out of two very distinct, almost contradictory, traditions – that of the analytic classifier and recorder on the one hand, and, on the other, the holistic maker of poetic visual images.’ – Nicholas Usherwood, Galleries Magazine
Having read Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, Jewell went on to qualify with a PhD in Natural History Illustration from the Royal College of Art. From 2005-6, she was the Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the British Museum in London, and is now the Artist in Residence of their Oceania Department. Recently she also took up residency at the American Museum of Natural History.
Jewell’s latest exhibition with the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery explores cultures of collecting, museology and the migration of artefacts, charting their life stories as they journey through space and time. The display of several major works will include a giant feather egg, a Captain Cook-inspired feather cape and a Marshall Island Sea Stick chart, collaged with etched feathers. Each work is inspired by the British Museum’s Oceania collections, the gallery space transformed into a Cabinet of Curiosities.
In association with the exhibition, the gallery will host a poetry-reading on 12 April from 6pm, featuring poems by Valerie Bence in response to Jewell’s works. Jewell will also have a display of artwork in the West Foyer of the British Museum’s Clore Centre from 5 – 31 April, as part of this collaboration.
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Rebecca Jewell, The Oceanic Egg, 2016
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Rebecca Jewell, Navigation Chart, 2016
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Rebecca Jewell, Cape Of Voyages, 2016
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Rebecca Jewell, Ship's Compass, 2016
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Rebecca Jewell, Trapped, 2016
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Rebecca Jewell, Floating Feathers, 2016
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Rebecca Jewell, Appropriating A'a, 2016
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Rebecca Jewell, Whitney South Sea Expedition, 2014
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Rebecca Jewell, Dolphin In Storage, 2007