The Gold Threads of Time

PROMENADE, Suzy MacMurray, Kedleston Hall.

This was a magical exhibition not like any I'd visited before.

Being site specific, it was unique to Kedleston Hall and designed specifically for this space, with the intention of heightening peoples' awareness and encouraging them to engage more with their surroundings, thinking about both its past and present.

On a regular day in Kedleston, visitors would pass through the grand hall, perhaps absorbing the framed artwork on the walls, the many sculptures so precisely placed and the lavish chandeliers suspended from the sky high ceilings above. Few would consider the space itself as art, nor would they ponder the original use for the room.

The whole building was built as a show palace, and ladies would literally promenade through the marble hall exhibiting their current fashions to the onlookers. MacMurray in particular considers a magnificent peacock dress worn by lady Curzon in 1903. It was embroidered by Indian craftsmen with metal thread and jewels on gold thread, so that it would glisten in a room lit by electricity. MacMurrays' magical gold thread emulates this by shining at differing points as the sun moves through the day and its rays beam through the grand window at the foot of the hall.

MacMurrays' installation captured mine and my friends' imaginations for over an hour, as we discussed how the threads made us feel. Transported, trapped, elated, mesmerised and involved, were all words that repeatedly cropped up. Katie was captivated by the ways in which the threads crossed over one another, like yarns of time and generations all working together in harmony.

Promenade succeeded in in contributing to an existing work of art. The hall was the cloth, the gold was the thread and MacMurray was the needle. She the creator, the facilitator, the embroidress. She decorated her fabric and made people stop, admire and consider.

I stopped.