Bleached Bone and Living Wood

Not a story directly about Jacquetta Hawkes, yet I think there are echoes of her interests.  Dr Christine Finn recently broadcast about a house transformed into a work of art.   The poet Wilfred Owen wrote his last letter to his family  in the cellar of a forester’s house in Ors in Northern France on 31 October 1918.  He was killed on the 4th.  The house is now a tribute to Owen’s life and poetry.  For pictures and more, see the Radio 4 page about the broadcast, which is currently available on the iPlayer.

 

Figures in a Landscape goes to Wales

There is so much interest in Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and post-war British sculpture at the moment!  Very much reflected on this blog, as Jacquetta Hawkes had many connections with these artists and was also inspired by British landscapes and geology.   The latest event takes place in Powys: Dr Christine Finn will show Figures in a Landscape, Jacquetta’s 1953  film about sculptor Barbara Hepworth, and discuss the British post-WW2 arts scene at the Bleddfa Centre on 8 October.

Digging the Dirt

Jacquetta’s biographer Dr Christine Finn is one of the speakers at an event at the Wellcome Institute on 21 July which will “peer through the lens of archaeology to find out just how dirty our past was, the wonders contained in a speck of soil and what the future holds for the study of our filthy remains”.  Digging the Dirt is part of a fascinating programme of talks based on the Wellcome’s latest exhibition, DIRT!

Writers’ Archives: the next generation

A writer’s archive reflects how they think, how they work, their innermost selves.  Not only in the content of the archive, but in what is kept, and how it is organised (or not).  Jacquetta Hawkes kept her papers all her life: her nature notebooks, important correspondence, manuscripts and typescripts … they now form her wonderful archive in Special Collections.  She died in 1996, just before wordprocessing, email, the web and other IT developments became part of writers’ everyday lives.

These innovations have changed how writers work, and the archives they create.  What would a modern Jacquetta’s archive be like?  How can archivists work with such a writer to preserve the evidence of their creative process, given that there will be no bulk of paper to deal with, just inaccessible files …

In Tales from the Digital Archive, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 26 April, Christine Finn (Jacquetta’s biographer) reflects on these issues with input from Emory University (Salman Rushdie Archive), the British Library (Ted Hughes Archive), and Fay Weldon.

King Tut’s Wonderful Trumpets

“Among the “wonderful things” Howard Carter described as he peered by candlelight into the newly discovered tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 were two trumpets, one silver and one bronze …”

An article on the BBC website by Jacquetta Hawkes’ biographer, Dr Christine Finn, explores the story of these extraordinary survivals, and how one was lost – and found.  The article includes a 1939 recording of one actually being played!   Dr Finn looks at how archaeologists are working with other ancient musical instruments and recreating historic music without harming the artefacts.  You can hear more on Ghost Music, a BBC Radio 4 programme to be broadcast on Tuesday 19 April at 1.30, repeated on Saturday 23 April at 3.30 and available on the BBC iplayer.

Dr Finn reports from Egypt

Jacquetta Hawkes’ biographer, Dr Christine Finn, continues to work as a journalist specialising in archaeological news stories.  Her latest is a BBC Radio 4 From our own Correspondent broadcast on looting of archaeological treasures in Egypt.  It is available on the iplayer (Dr Finn’s story is Chapter 3).

The Isle of Wight: a place to be!

Another in the series of readings and lectures Dr Christine Finn is giving in the UK and elsewhere, to mark Jacquetta’s centenary:

A PLACE TO BE: JACQUETTA HAWKES and the ISLE OF WIGHT.

A public lecture by DR. CHRISTINE FINN.

at: The Seely Hall, Brook

on: Wednesday, 29 September at 7.30 pm

Admission: £5

supported by The Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeological Society

After their marriage in 1953, Jacquetta Hawkes and J.B. Priestley lived on the Isle of Wight, at Brook Hill.  As Christine says, there “they spent a quiet few years, entertaining close friends and family. They also continued their prodigious output of books, essays, talks and scripts”.

Dr Finn particularly  welcomes contributions from those who recall Jack and Jacquetta on the Island, or who were inspired to archaeology by Jacquetta’s works, in particular A Land, which mentions the Isle of Wight in its lyrical description of British geology.

Jacquetta Hawkes and the Jurassic Coast

“Where memory is deeply stirred: Jacquetta Hawkes and the Jurassic Coast”. A free talk by Dr Christine Finn, biographer of Jacquetta Hawkes, at Lyme Regis Philpot Museum, 7pm 28 September 2010. The Dorset coast was one of Hawkes’s favourite places; in her most famous work, A Land, she celebrated Mary Anning and powerfully evoked the deep past shown in Lyme Regis and Dorset geology.

The event is part of the Lyme Regis ArtsFest.

Words, Land, and Landscape at Ilkley Literature Festival

Just announced: the 2010 Ilkley Literature Festival programme includes several events celebrating the centenary of Jacquetta Hawkes.  More detail about buying tickets etc available from the Festival website.

Tuesday 28 September-Sunday 31 October 2010, Manor House Museum. Celebrating Jacquetta Hawkes.  An exhibition in which I use the treasures of the Jacquetta Hawkes Archive to tell her fascinating story. (Event no. 2).

Wednesday 6 October 2010. 6.30-8 pm, Manor House Museum.  Private view: special chance to enjoy the above exhibition and Faces of Poetry, also on show in the Manor House.  (Event no. 54).

Wednesday 6 October 7.45 pm,  Ilkley Playhouse Wildmans.  Old Land, New Land: a journey through Jacquetta Hawkes’ poetic geography. Dr Christine Finn, Jacquetta’s biographer,  introduces Figures in a Landscape, an experimental film about Barbara Hepworth scripted by Jacquetta Hawkes and continuing the fusion of literature and geology shown in her masterpiece, A Land. (Event no. 55).

Saturday 16 October 7.30 pm,  St Margaret’s Hall.  Jacquetta Hawkes and her Circle. Dr Finn and Dr Jon Wood of the Henry Moore Institute discuss the art, film and poetry scene of the 1950s (Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Festival of Britain) and Jacquetta’s involvement. (Event no. 165).

The Stanza Stones project, collaborating with Simon Armitage, will draw creative inspiration from the Pennine landscape, linking beautifully with our exploration of similar ideas in the 1950s.

Leave Home Stay

Dr Christine Finn is a guest on BBC Radio 4′s Midweek programme on 21 July 2010 at 9.00 and 21.30.  She will talk about the latest event in her Leave-Home-Stay series.  These events explore the idea of home, and are based around her old family house in Deal, Kent.  Leave-Home-Stay Haiti was inspired by her journey to Haiti in February this year.   Alongside a display of photographs will be a range of other events exploring the themes raised.

Dr Finn discussing Leave-Home-Stay on her blog

Guardian blog articles by Dr Finn about opening up her childhood home as an installation in 2007: Opening the door to living history.  Want to snoop round my house?