Preserved between the image and the word

‘Preserved between the Image and the Word’ was a collaborative exhibition by artists, Elaine Allison, Patricia Bray, Kyra Clegg and poet, Anna Crowe. Commissioned by Stanza International Poetry Festival March 2015 it was shown at the Preservation Trust Museum, St Andrews during the festival.

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Its inspiration was the Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History in St Andrews which was founded, and most specimens acquired, during the heyday of the Victorian age, when collecting was all the rage. Visual artists and poets are collectors too, always on the lookout for new material to feed their habit and the museum proved a rich resource for the artists and poet who worked together creating an ongoing dialogue between the image and the word using a range of media which included video, painting, poetry, printmaking, and sculpture.

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“Sharing our inspiration and varying practices in an exciting cross-fertilisation of ideas, texts and images enabled us to bring together work which reflected the vision of the Bell Pettigrew Natural History Collection".

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