a r t s
The fight against
the dark
On 30th September 1881 the Daily Telegraph reported on the world’s first public electricity supply, powered by the wheel at Mr Pullman’s leather mill on the River Wey.
© all photographs by Katheryn Trenshaw www.inyourownskin.org
Finding truth can be more than skin deep With a camera and body paint in hand, artist and photographer Katheryn Trenshaw approached over a hundred and fifty people and asked them: What is true of you but not obvious to strangers?
Participants chose a word (or phrase) that revealed something about themselves yet was unknown to most others. Trenshaw collected portraits of subjects from more than thirty countries and all walks of life. Each of their photographs reveals a living story. “If we want to be resilient and deal with the difficulties that will arise as we lose our supply of oil, we need each other and we need dynamic resilient communities. “I wanted to know what makes people happy and what keeps people strong in challenging times. In other words, I am a kind of hidden treasure hunter researching resilience and how creativity and inner transition work can play a role in this transition.” One of her influences came from a meeting with eco-philosopher Joanna Macy at a conference in San Francisco: “I was deeply moved by a shared passion for helping people transform despair and apathy, in 16 the face of overwhelming
social and ecological crises, into constructive, collaborative action.” Her In Your Own Skin project is a creative innovative response to climate change and helps to create a strong vibrant healthy community; the kind on which Transition initiatives are based. It also aims to create a bridge for people on the edge of our communities to engage with Transition who might otherwise not do so. The artist had an epiphany a few years ago during which she realised that the greatest treasures we hold are buried deep in each of us. “All of us have something to hide, something we wish nobody would find out. If we can share these things in a safe way we are often surprised by the beauty that lies in the very thing we have been hiding. “Everybody has a story. We also all hold powerful gifts that will be ever more important to share. This vein of gold hidden inside is true in all of us. Collectively this marks the difference between being able to thrive in these transition times and our demise.” Katheryn Trenshaw is an American born artist and expressive arts teacher. She is the founder and the director of Passionate Presence Centre for Creative Expression and helps run the Transition Town Totnes Arts Network (TTTAN). www.passionatepresence.org
‘We shall not want the stoker and the collier so much if only the example set by the good people of Godalming be followed. The waterfalls, mill heads and rivers will quietly be making all our electricity by day and we shall be consuming it as easily at night, or the winds and tides will be made to labour for us. Nature in all her varied moods will be called in to help us fight against the dark, and we shall be able eventually to turn night into day by the bright lamps which Nature herself kindles for us.’ This was a story we wanted to tell in Godalming Museum and we were fortunate to get the support of the Happy Museum Project to do this. The Project encourages museums to explore how they can contribute to environmental and social sustainability. Our project partner was the London Cinema Museum, also working on building stronger connections in their local community. The other ‘Happy Museums’ were the Lightbox in Woking, the London Transport Museum, Manchester Museum and the new Story Museum in Oxford with a range of projects to engage mental health service users, homeless people and families with young children, as well as to embed resilience and sustainability into museum planning and operation. At Godalming we aim to create a display linking local heritage and present day thought and action, and to find ways for the museum itself to be more sustainable, and are working closely with other local organisations and individuals to achieve this. Allotmore, Greening Godalming, traditional woodworker Mervyn Mewis, Puttenham Eco Camping Barn, Skillway, Transition Godalming, Waverley Cycle Forum and musician Kathryn Young, among others, have been hugely generous with their time, skills, knowledge and enthusiasm, as have many of the museum’s volunteers. All this creative input has enriched the project and taken it in some surprising directions. Together we are planning a display which asks the visitor questions: Where does your power come from? What do you use it for? Where does your food come from? How has this changed over time? Perhaps inevitably, the museum has started to ask itself some questions too. I never would have thought of putting a display label beside the gallery heater, or the light switch, but this gives us an opportunity not just to explain what we are doing now, but to explore how the building has been heated and lit over six centuries. The process of creating the display - the friendships the museum is building, the new ideas it is taking on board, the opportunities for training and work shadowing, have become as important as the end result. Knowing the complex story of ‘the fight against the dark’, which has absorbed human ingenuity and effort since the Palaeolithic era, will also help us find a solution to the central challenge of our times: powerdown. Alison Pattison is the Curator of Godalming Museum, a small community museum run in partnership by Godalming Museum Trust and Waverley Borough Council. The new display will be open in March.
The Pullman family posed outside the Goldalming mill on the Wey Photo courtesy of Godalming Museum Collection