The National Trust is continuing Tyntesfield house’s long-standing tradition of exhibiting contemporary art with Nicola Turner’s takeover: The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past. Her creations have caused quite a stir already, encouraging visitors to engage with the spaces and objects within each room like never before
Artist Nicola Turner has unveiled her latest exhibition The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past at Tyntesfield house near Bristol where, throughout the house she has created a series of evocative, large installations made from materials, such as wool and horsehair. Tyntesfield, cared for by the National Trust, is a Victorian Gothic Revival masterpiece which was home to four generations of the Gibbs family. Inspired by Tyntesfield’s vast collection of over 70,000 objects, Nicola has installed sculptures that echo their environment, drawing from the imagined memories that live in fabric the house. The installations explore
ways of listening to past, present and future, combining modern art and heritage.
“The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past is created from found furniture legs, wool and horsehair; materials salvaged from old mattresses and furniture therefore embedded with a lived history,” says Nicola. “Tyntesfield is a house filled with objects and encapsulated memories. I have been fascinated by seeing the broken items previously owned by the Gibbs Family and in store at Tyntesfield. The glimpses beneath the tears in fabric. The stuffing breaking free. The bowels of the furniture. The layers of materials. I have responded to these often unseen fabrics using similar materials in my own site-responsive installations around the house.”
Nicola’s work explores how objects can hold memories, so for the team at Tyntesfield, it felt like a good opportunity for her work to interact with objects and rooms in the house not normally on display. Broken objects and rooms that look less pristine feel like they show the passage of time and traces of memory more clearly, so having Nicola’s work interact with them encourages visitors to think about the past, present and future. Also, the materials of horsehair and furniture legs link so closely with the materials used in some of the objects like mattresses and sofas, that the two elements closely intertwine.
The Trust looks after a large collection at Tyntesfield: there are old master paintings, beautifully crafted decorative art and carved oak furniture of astonishing quality. But they also have plenty of utilitarian household objects and things that were once new, but are now worn through years of use. Both sides of the collection, the ordinary and the extraordinary, are of value, and help Tyntesfield tell a more complete story. Nicola’s exhibition gives visitors an exciting opportunity to see new, unexpected objects and spaces, and gain a fuller picture of the Gibbs family’s 150-year occupation of the house.
This installation is one of the biggest ever hosted by the team, who have seen that people are thinking more deeply about the history of the spaces and through the lens of their different interpretations of the artwork, seeing the space and collection items in a new way. The work alters the traditional experience of the house, encouraging people to think more about what they are seeing and engage with the space in a new way, looking beneath the surface level.
The wool and horsehair installations draw influence from the house, weaving around and cascading from objects in Tyntesfield’s historic collection, like furniture, books and ceramics. The tendrils invite visitors to reinterpret the house, reflecting and thinking differently about the stories it contains. Nicola reuses her materials, so these creations will go on to be repurposed into future works. The installations wind their way around the house from room to room and as well as some of the grand public rooms, such as the Library and Main Hall, and visitors will have the chance to see spaces not normally open to the public, including bedrooms and storerooms. This means people are able to get a sense of the house behind-the-scenes and to appreciate the scale of the conservation work the National Trust undertakes at Tyntesfield.
As well as Nicola’s installation, Tyntesfield has an autumn programme packed with fun for the whole family. Join the Halloween Trail (26 October to 3 November) and help Gertrude the Witch find the ingredients she needs to make her Frog Fudge, exploring Tyntesfield Estate to find all seven ingredients and win a prize; October will also see the return of the Autumn Harvest Display (October 26 until November 15), which promises more colour than ever before, so visitors can immerse themselves in a picture-perfect autumn scene in Tyntesfield’s Orangery; and visitors can also take part in a ‘Pick your own medlars’ event (25 October), where they’ll join Tyntesfield’s rangers to learn all about this weird but wonderful fruit, learn how to turn them into a delicious jelly, and even pick some to take home with them.
The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past is being exhibited in Tyntesfield House until Sunday 3 November. For more info, visit nationaltrust.org.uk/tyntesfield
