This is perhaps the most intimate room of the exhibition. It is the collectors private domain, not a place you would usually get access to. Here the collector lays out his collector for his own personal pleasure. He likes to keep the most precious pieces for the bedroom.

Some of the works in this room nearly didn’t make it and so also improvised a new work instead.And then the works turned up at the last minute anyway.I was so excited and happy when they did as I was preparing for them to be lost as the shipping company didn’t know where they were.

The works here are:

The tree of life: acid etched brass insects, hand painted trees, entomology box
A group of German Cockroaches discovering their freedom or perhaps they are about to be captured and hiding in the forest won’t help

 

German Cockroaches – display on chest.
After they have been caught, this is where they find their final resting place

Orchid: acid etched stainless steel, gold leaf, museum entomology box. The rarest of orchids causes much excitement amongst collectors, this is the rarest of them all and takes pride of place in the bedroom. It is the most delicate of flowers covered as it is with gold leaf.

When I was a child I made a trip to London with my family to see the Gold of El Dorado Exhibition at the British Museum. It became a rather mythical experience for me and influenced my new work and the awe I felt surrounded by all that gold and beauty was a big influence. I am fascinated by the mysticism and religious quality of the objects. Gold is a material that has an other world quality that generates passion and obsession. The works you see here are my interpretation of the mystical semi religious objects unearthed from an archeological dig.

 

Poppy: Acid Etched brass, Spanish lace pins, box frame
The poppy is a symbol of peace, perhaps one of the most emotive of symbols, used to commemorate the war dead. It is also a symbol of something else, the opium poppy is a potent symbol of the global drugs trade. I am fascinated by how one beautiful flower can have such power.

Pearl’s Tears: hand cut paper, entomology pins, Victorian entomology box.
This is the collection of a mythical tears, captured for posterity. Stored in the most delicate of boxes, from a Victorian collector.

 

We are off to the white room next…