Cookham artist is 'looking for humanity' in archaeological dig with creative workshops

A Cookham-based artist is running creative workshops inspired by the excavation of the Anglo Saxon monastery, which restarted last week.

Phyllida Shelley is the artist in residence with the charity, Friends of Cookham Abbey, which was set up to raise funds for the excavation and provide an outreach programme to promote the research.

Her work, which is produced on-site, is divided into three themes based on the excavation trenches, archaeological finds and the people she’s met, who either worked on the excavation or visited the site.

Phyllida, who has been a Cookham resident for more than 20 years, said: “Now my awareness is going further back in history and also deeper. I’m not just walking through a field, thinking about how beautiful it is on the surface. I’m walking through it, and thinking about the trenches, and what they found and what else might be there.

“Some of the conversations I’ve had have led to artwork. If I’m engaging with the public and perhaps broadening people’s interests, then that also helps with the funding aspect.

“My engagement with the place is enriched by this.”

This summer, her drawings and prints are joined by a three-dimensional installation taking the shape of an Anglo Saxon symbol found on the back of Queen Cynethryth’s coin, made entirely of showerheads.

Phyllida said: “A local company supplies the NHS with showerheads and the NHS replace them really often. They get through thousands of them. So they get sent back to Cookham Waste to be recycled, so my installation will be recycled. It’s called ‘Refreshed’”

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Phyllida runs hourly creative mindfulness workshops for £2 and on Saturdays she holds a three-hour drawing and print-making workshop for £10.

She said: “The purpose of the sessions is to be on site, get the feeling of the place, observe things going on, look at the finds and create work in a mindful way.

“I draw all the time. I’m looking for humanity even within a rusty old nail. I can see that as a figure, as a person. I’m looking at the details and seeing how it connects with my creativity.”

Phyllida said the archaeologists often discard finds on a ‘not of interest’ pile, which she then ‘inks up’ to make prints, of which one piece is called, ‘Remains of Interest’.

“It ‘remains of interest’ to me even if it’s not of interest to them. I’m displaying it on-site and showing them that their rubbish can be artwork,” she added.

Phyllida also takes handprints of everybody that comes on-site, and has up to 150 so far.

She said: “It’s a good way to meet everybody – it’s quite intimate. Even if there’s just a few people on-site one day, they are aware there are so many more people involved in this. It illustrates this and is like a document. The longer we keep it, the more special it becomes.”

Phyllida has an exhibition, showcasing her works from the Cookham Dig, in the Parish Centre on September 9 and 10 as part of the Cookham Arts Trail. Book her workshop at www.cookhamabbey.org.uk/events/