Investigating the life of things across space and time

The Flimsy Copy (2021)
Installation, The Long Gallery, Rockingham Castle

The flimsy copy

A love letter to the spectres of women past, present and future

Installation, textiles, objects, drawing and audio by Sarah Gillett

lavender dress with tiny pixelated scenes from Minecraft printed on the fabric
black paper with a drawing in white of a circle of 12 meteorites that have landed in the UK

The flimsy copy

Sarah Gillett's The flimsy copy started in the family archives of Rockingham Castle, with the artist’s interest in the lives of its female occupants throughout history. Over a year in the making, her resulting body of work uses physical and digital spaces to dig into the resonances left by these women on literature, spiritualism and gardening and reminds us of the importance of what we leave behind.

The flimsy copy manifests as an installation of drawing, objects and sound in The Long Gallery at Rockingham Castle. A floating figure wears a dress based on a 19th century pattern, as may have been worn by Lavinia Watson, lady of the house and a close confidante of Charles Dickens in the 1840s. Elsewhere in The Long Gallery a cabinet displays correspondence between Lavinia and Charles, a remnant of an extraordinary friendship which inspired Bleak House.

Sarah's fabric design is made up of tiny scenes from her Minecraft world, Many hands make lightwork; look closely and you will see a pixelated version of the meteorite stone circle that exists in this room as a large drawing, hung nearby on the right hand wall.

The spectral occupant of this dress can be explored online in Not only; but also, an artwork that takes us inside the dress and body of a woman lying in the gardens of Rockingham Castle at night. In place of organs are objects of desire owned by Sarah. We hear fragments of a seance. Outside we can see a ghost of the Minecraft world but cannot access this other time and place directly.

In The Long Gallery Sarah's objects of desire appear as 3D printed figures under glass domes and in boxes. Spirit trumpets point upwards to capture a whispering soundtrack that drifts in and out of the space. We hear fragments of letters and seance transcripts from Florence Culme-Seymour's archives. Against increasing tensions in 1930s Europe, Florence writes frequently to her son about her daily life, the changing of the seasons in the garden and her worries. Through the seance transcripts, her longing to connect to her late husband through a medium unearths both poignant and surreal visitations, growing into epic supernatural narratives that last over 10 years.

The flimsy copy appears in the exhibition The Howse Shal be Preserved, Rockingham Castle. Commissioned by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, 2020-2021

long, grand room inside a stately home, with a red carpet and gold and white wallpaper, fittings and ceiling mouldings. At the far end of the room a dress floats in the air next to a large metal cone; on the right hand wall a drawing on black paper can be seen

The Flimsy Copy associated works

a lilac lavender world with a circle of meteorites and a standing figure of Venus

Not only; but also (2021)

Inspired by the lives of women at Rockingham Castle and their resonance in history, literature and spirituality, this web-based artwork takes the form of a sleeping ghostly female figure and explores an interior world where memory, dreams and shadows reign.

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sheet music of a hymn called Open my eyes, that I may see

Open my eyes

Rewrite of Clara H. Scott’s 1895 hymn, Open my eyes, that I may see , a favourite opening anthem for seances at Rockingham Castle in the 1930s. My version emphasises the house as a haunted body.

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