Artists in the Archive was a commission awarded to Mark, Kippa, Damian and John from York Museums Trust during the 2009-2010 rennovation of the Yorkshire Museum. The museum closure gave an opportunity for the curators, artists and the public to engage with and promote the collection in new ways, with the result of this collaboration being displayed in York Art Gallery in April 2010.
The four artists were tasked with exploring a particularly important but little known part of the archive at the Yorkshire Museum – the artefacts and research associated with the Mesolithic period, and in particular the site at Star Carr near Scarborough in North Yorkshire.
The project also involved working with archaeologists at the University of York to help better interpret and understand both the finds and the site itself. The result was an interesting and challenging interactive installation, involving video, sound, and photography all brought together in a real life archive-like setting, that included a real, living tree as its centrepiece. Find out more about the project on our blog, which includes more information about how we tackled this challenging project. You can also find the photography that was used in or inspired the final installation on our Flickr site.
