chris ruston
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    • Reverberations
    • The Poems of Mrs Opie: A Return To Possibilities
    • Out of the Ashes
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    • The Great Gathering
    • Lost Voices - Whaling
    • Salts - LighthouseKeeping
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    • Silent Spring Revisited
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The Poems Of Mrs Opie: Return to Possibilities.

"We are surrounded by voices, by remembering"
Edmund De Waal
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This redacted deconstructed book of Mrs Opie"s poems was made to be displayed across the beautiful medieval walls of the undercroft in the Bridewell, Museum of Norwich. Pages resting on walls with seven hundred years of history etched across its surface.  
Suspended
 between fine threads woven across rusting nails left by a Victorian shoemaker, these fragile moments gently unfold, as Opie's voice resonates through the centuries. Thoughts echo between us: hang quietly as time seeks to dissolve those connections.
While making this work, I was conscious how attitudes and perspectives shift and slide through time. Formed from Opie’s words, these pages become a visual poem: an ongoing conversation in the twenty first century. I am left with  questions: Who is now the author? Whose voice is now speaking? Is it Amelia? Is it mine?  I wonder is history not a continual process of redaction? Of loss and gain, of recording and rewriting experiences?  Stories travel over time a new text emerges, words that remain as poignant today. 

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The Poems of Mrs Opie: A Return to Possibilities
Author Amelia Opie 1811
​Artist Chris Ruston 2023
L 17.3cm x W 11.5cm x 3.5cm
Altered Book, Redacted Text.


  • About
  • Musings
  • Gallery
  • Artist Books
    • Reverberations
    • The Poems of Mrs Opie: A Return To Possibilities
    • Out of the Ashes
    • At Melville's Tomb
    • The Ark
    • The Great Gathering
    • Lost Voices - Whaling
    • Salts - LighthouseKeeping
    • The Future of Ice
    • The Sea
    • Holuhraun 2014 -2015
    • Silent Spring Revisited
    • Capturing the Moment.
  • Contact